Techno-Law

In 2006 Alabama court officials introduced an e-filing system to allow thousands of attorneys to securely file complaints, discoveries, proposed orders and other documents over the Internet. The Alabama Administrative Office of Courts (AOC) expected attorneys to electronically file about 80 percent of all civil cases through AlaFile by the end of 2006. Civil cases include family matters such as divorces and child support. AOC is the office that oversees the state’s unified court system and is responsible for centralized purchasing, personnel issues, technology and other matters. Alafile is the name given the new system allowing legal documents to be filed over the internet.

I do not believe that AOC adequately calculated attorney’s reluctance to embrace change especially changes in technology. Most of us only change when we are forced to. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. We have all been e-filing appeals for some time. A few adventurous attorneys have begun filing some of their civil documents on line.

You may have heard that there have been changes brought to the state court system because of a lack of money. Some counties have been requiring that everything filed in civil and criminal court be e-filed. The Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Sue Bell Cobb, has set up deadlines that must be met by each state court. The time has come to Franklin County for all civil matters to be filed over the internet.

When I first started practicing law here in 1984 I believe the filing fee for a circuit court civil case was $49. This fee allowed multiple modifications, contempt petitions, and defaults. Now it cost $156 to file the original complaint or petition. It cost another $256 to file for modification and an additional $56 to file for a default judgment.

E-filing will save money and time. Tax payers will spend less money on paper, file folders, postage, printers, ink and personnel. It is also suppose to be more accurate and efficient. I guess it will be better after the learning curve.

My thought is that if it will work better for my clients to have everything to be filed electronically I’m in favor of doing it. Also if everything filed in court is on the internet my clients should have access to all of that information. I have a system that is being put into place that will do just that. This system is currently available only to my domestic relations clients. If my office represents anyone in a divorce or custody matter they will be able to access their file over the internet. They will also get e-mail notifications of everything that has been updated or changed. This is so new that I don’t have e-mail addresses for most of my clients. They can’t connect to this new system until I’ve obtained that address.

As soon as we all learn to file the civil cases over the internet we will be required to electronically file criminal cases also. So let’s work out all the bugs and get on the bandwagon.

Rebecca Green Thomason

Lawyerthomason@gmail.com

Greenthomason.com

256.331.0800