Essential Estrogen

Two state district court clerk's offices will soon be paperless.

Beginning later this year, everyone using the court system in Story and Plymouth counties will be required to file court documents electronically. Once filed, the documents will be found online and viewed by anyone with access to the Internet.

The two offices were chosen by the Iowa Judicial Branch as pilot sites to test an electronic document management system. The system will enable electronic filing of, and online access to, entire court documents and files.

"This is something which has been discussed in the Iowa Judiciary for about 10 years," said Rebecca Colton, assistant to Chief Justice Marsha Ternus. "We were ready to roll it out about seven years ago, but then budget cuts hit. Just last year we were able to regroup and begin rolling this out again."

According to Colton, this change will help keep expenses down while making the courts more efficient.

"We aren't going to try and go back in time to create an archive of documents," she added. "Everything going forward, however, will be electronic."

Three counties -- Clinton, Plymouth and Story -- applied to be pilot sites. A committee of judges, lawyers and court personnel evaluated the applicants based on county population, support of courthouse staff, potential effect of additional workloads on customer service and employee stress, and the ability of local lawyers and court personnel to adapt to changing practices and procedures.

"Moving the Iowa court system to electronic filing and digitized records is the most ambitious challenge the judicial branch has ever undertaken," said State Court Administrator David Boyd. "This is an exciting, albeit daunting, project. [The system] will not only change the way we do our business, it will change the way most tasks are performed by everyone involved in processing cases, including attorneys and judges."

Specifics on the rules for electronic filing (PDF file) are available on the judiciary site. They were compiled by the Iowa Supreme Court in January when public comment was requested.

Court officials anticipate that the system will be installed at the two pilot sites by early 2008. Once the testing phase is completed, the system will be installed in the appellate courts then gradually expanded to include all district courts, a process that will take about five years if everything goes as planned. Court officials estimate that the total cost for a statewide system would be about $19 million. Ongoing operating costs will be partially offset by fees paid by people filing documents with the courts.