E-Filing Design is Critical to Maximize Benefits for Courts and Filers

E-filing is a top priority of the Michigan Supreme Court and the State Court Administrative Office (SCAO).  We understand the critical implications to the courts in having a statewide e-filing and integrated electronic document management system (EDMS).  They provide a landmark opportunity to help courts become more efficient by reducing the need to receive, process, store, and retrieve paper files.   At the same time, e-filing will improve service to the public, increase access to courts, and reduce the cost of filing for litigants. 

Achieving those benefits, however, is very dependent on the design of the system and making sure that court needs are considered and integrated as appropriate.  That’s why courts have been consulted every step along the way.  Your input now will help make sure the right vendor is chosen and the final system design meets the needs of courts all across Michigan.

This vision of more efficient and accessible courts must be achieved in the context of Michigan’s diverse and decentralized judicial structure.  Therefore, a future statewide e-filing and integrated EDMS must include:

• Multi-tenant, hosted solutions for e-filing and document management that respect and support a balance between mandated statewide functionality and local control;
• A common statewide web-portal for filing;
• Ability for courts with local document management systems to continue using their local systems, while allowing the use of a shared EDMS by courts that desire it; and
• Effective integration between the new systems with local case management and document management systems.

Based on those general principles, a request for proposals (RFP) was published that had three critical objectives for vendors to achieve:

1. Provide a consistent user experience – the system must enable a common experience for all filers in the state regardless of jurisdiction and case type.
2. Enhance operational efficiency – from filing to case disposition, the system must allow courts to manage documents and provide for a paperless workflow.
3. Information exchange and accessibility – the system must allow courts and filers the ability to share documents through a central e-filing backbone regardless of the differences in case management systems in courts statewide.

In their RFPs, the prospective vendors also had to answer dozens of questions, providing information about their track record, organizational capacity, solution design and operation, application functionality (including more than 400 functional specifications provided by courts), implementation, and post-implementation support.

Now that the proposal review and scoring is complete, qualifying vendors have been selected to provide demonstrations of their proposed solutions.  These demonstrations are scheduled at the Hall of Justice on January 5, 9, and 10.  The sessions are expected to run most of the day and will include the demonstration, related presentations, and time for questions and answers.

To participate, court users are invited to watch a livestream broadcast.  Your questions will be received via e-mail, reviewed by a moderator for appropriateness, and passed on to the vendor for response as time permits.  You should have already received an e-mail invitation with a link and pass code to register for the demonstrations.  If you haven’t received the e-mail, please contact Mary Roush at efiling@courts.mi.gov.

Once the demonstrations are complete, the finalist will then be chosen and a contract negotiated by the end of February.  Initial implementation activities are anticipated to begin in early March.

Statewide e-filing and EDMS is the biggest change in a generation for Michigan courts.  With your input, this initiative will be a great success, helping courts be more efficient in providing even better service to the public.