Electronic filing of court documents is one of those technologies that can be both a blessing and a curse. While e-filing eliminates the headaches of paper filing and saves time overall, there is no standardization of the process across different courts, requiring different logins, different filing formats, and different steps to take in completing the filing. As a result, one in every 10 filings is rejected for some flaw.
Launching today is a new service designed to address that. From American LegalNet (ALN), the Los Angeles based company whose core product is an end-to-end application for managing litigation dockets, deadlines and documents, comes the new eFiling Portal for law firms.
The portal is designed to provide law firms with a single interface and sign-on to manage and process all their e-filings. The portal also reduces the steps required to process a filing, automatically converts documents to comply with specific court standards, integrates calendaring of docket matters with Microsoft Outlook, and provides a single dashboard to monitor filings and analyze trends.
And for those late-night filings when no one at the court is available to answer your support questions, the service includes an ALN-staffed helpline that runs from 6 a.m. to midnight Pacific time.
But before you get too excited about all this, be aware that the service will be available only for limited courts for the time being, although the company’s plan is to eventually provide the service for every court whose system allows for integration with third-party e-filing providers.
The dashboard gives a firm an overview of all its filing activity.
With today’s launch, the service will be available for e-filings in Los Angeles Superior Court, which is the single-largest unified trial court in the country. In October, it will expand into California’s Orange County Superior Court, and by
