News
Clerk’s Office
Expands ECF To Circuit Civil Cases
ORLANDO,
FL
—
Orange County Clerk of Courts Lydia Gardner is pleased to announce
that Electronic Case Filing (ECF) has been expanded to all Circuit
Civil cases effective
July 1, 2008. Previously,
e-filing was only available for Complex Business Litigation cases.
The expansion means thousands more cases can be filed electronically,
24/7, from anywhere the attorney or pro se litigant has
Internet access. The process is reduced from days to just under an
hour and reduces the need for courier fees and postal services, to
name just a few of the savings.
“We are delighted to make this efficient, time- and cost-saving
customer service available to hundreds more attorneys and their
clients, as well as to pro se litigants,’’ said Clerk Lydia
Gardner, who noted the invaluable collaboration with Chief Judge
Belvin Perry Jr. of the Ninth Judicial Circuit in making ECF possible.
“We anticipate accepting an additional 30,000 cases electronically in
the coming year.’’
ECF allows attorneys and pro se litigants to initiate new
cases and pay filing fees online, as well as to receive electronic
notification of all documents filed in their cases 24 hours a day, 7
days a week, said Project Manager Carolyn Weber, who previously
deployed e-filing in the Middle District of Florida for the Federal
Court.
Already,
more than 1,600 attorneys are registered to file electronically and
more than 900 cases have been accessed through the system.
The
Clerk offers regular training sessions to attorneys, law firms and
paralegal organizations. For more information and training
opportunities, please see our
ECF information page
on myorangeclerk.com..
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February 5,
2008
Clerk’s Office Step Closer To Expanded ECF
ORLANDO, FL
— Orange County Clerk of the Courts Lydia Gardner is pleased to
announce that a key state Supreme Court committee has approved her
office’s request to expand Electronic Case Filing to Circuit Civil
cases.
Now
that the Florida Court Technology Commission has made its
recommendation, the next step is a Supreme Court Administrative Order
endorsing the move.
“ECF allows attorneys to initiate new cases and pay
filing fees online, as well as receive electronic notification of all
documents filed in their cases,” said Project Manager Carolyn Weber,
who previously deployed e-filing in the Middle District of Florida for
the Federal Court. Weber noted that an additional 30,000 cases a year
could be e-filed in the Orange County Clerk’s Office once expansion
gets final approval.
Among the benefits:
·
A process that once could take days can now be done in
an hour.
·
Attorneys and pro se litigants have remote access to
case files 24/7.
·
Documents are automatically docketed, filed and
immediately available.
·
Attorneys and clients save money on postage, staff and
other costs.
·
The Clerk’s Office can better serve customers, its No.
1 goal.
Electronic Case Filing began in March 2006 with the
Complex Business Litigation Division, and effective January 2007,
e-filing became mandatory for those types of cases. Already, 780 cases
have been accessed and filed through ECF and more than 1,200 attorneys
are registered to file electronically. Through ECF, the process
of case initiation has been reduced from 5 to 10 business days to an
hour in many cases.
.................................................................
April 4, 2007
Orange County Clerk Announces Launch of
myCLERK and Other Technology Advances Lydia Gardner,
Orange County Clerk of Courts, announced today that the new myCLERK
web portal, developed to better serve the public, will be online by
the end of April.
She also announced that more than 600 lawyers are registered to use
the Clerk’s Electronic Case Filing system to file Complex Business
Litigation cases and that payments made via the Intranet at
myorangeclerk.com increased by almost 114 percent in FY 2005-06,
exceeding $2.9 million, and continue to soar.
Gardner unveiled the selection of Tyler Technologies, Inc., as the
vendor to replace the current Case Maintenance System. Once in place,
the new CMS will give the Clerk’s Office a state-of-the-art system
designed to keep up with future demands.
“Our use of innovative technologies,’’ said Gardner, “enables the
Clerk’s Office to achieve significant progress toward excellence in
all our operations through increased effectiveness and efficiency.
These investments in infrastructure enable the Clerk’s office to serve
our customers in a 24/7 environment, keep pace with growth in the
county and control operating costs.’’
MyCLERK, the updated Internet-based service, will replace i-Clerk
to enhance access and reliability for the general public. Currently
visitors to myorangeclerk.com can experience service delays due
to the exceedingly heavy volume of information requests. MyCLERK also
will provide enhanced search capabilities so members of the public can
carry out more detailed research.
The Orange County Clerk’s Electronic Case Filing (ECF) system
received approval from the Florida Supreme Court in 2004 and went live
in March 2006. It enables attorneys to file new cases and subsequent
pleadings electronically and have access to those files and documents
24/7 from any location via the Internet.
After the successful launch, The Honorable Belvin Perry, Jr., Chief
Judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit, issued an Administrative Order
mandating it be used for all cases filed in the Complex Business
Litigation Court. The Order became effective on January 2, 2007. The
number of registered users has risen to 625 attorneys and more than
390 cases have been filed electronically.
“Having filed the first two cases on record using the new
Electronic Case Filing System,” said Orlando attorney Ed Foster, a
partner at Akerman Senterfitt, P.A., “I can say that we are very
pleased with the system, the user-friendly process of filing and the
very knowledgeable and helpful support staff at the Orange County
Clerk of Courts.”
Enhancements to the web-enabled payment module have contributed to
a dramatic increase in monies paid online. Currently electronic
payments are averaging $130,000 per week.
The Case Maintenance System within the Clerk’s Office stores,
tracks and retrieves information from a multimillion-record data base
and serves 35 categories of stakeholders with hundreds of subgroups.
Among them are the Courts, criminal justice system at the state and
local level, local government entities in and outside the county,
hospitals, treatment centers, and members of the Orange County Bar
Association.
In 2006, the system processed more than 450,000 new cases, docketed
more than 6.5 million in files and managed approximately 47 million
file pages.
“Our current Case Maintenance System is foundational to every
aspect of the business of the Courts,” said Clerk of the Court
Gardner, “and is stretched to its limits. While we have been able to
stabilize it to ensure reliability in the face of rapidly escalating
demand for service, it is not a permanent solution.
“Tyler Technologies was awarded the bid,” Gardner continued, “after
an extensive assessment of service needs and a rigorous and
vendor-neutral due diligence process to determine the
engineering readiness of bidders to develop software that will achieve
all our objectives.
“We very much appreciate the ongoing involvement of Chief Judge
Belvin Perry, Jr.; Judge Jay Cohen; Matthew H. Roby, Esquire, Chair,
Technical Law Committee Orange County Bar Association; Rafaela Mena,
Chief Information Officer, Orange County; along with Clerk’s Office IT
staff,” Gardner said.
Gino Butto, the Clerk’s Chief Information Officer, led the Clerk’s
efforts to find the right company to replace the Case Maintenance
System.
“We were fortunate to have input from professionals with such
impressive credentials and expertise,’’ Butto said. “We are moving
forward with great confidence and excitement about the future.’’
Due diligence for the selection was supported by The North Highland
Co., a nationally recognized technology consultant and the State of
Florida’s approved vendor for technology assessment and selection
services. A high level panel of business leaders and IT experts led by
Edmund C. Timberlake, Jr., President-Central Florida, Bank of America,
reviewed and evaluated North Highland’s assessment of the proposals to
further ensure that no issue relating to the capability and
performance of the products and vendors under consideration of
potential consequence to the functioning of the Clerk’s Office has
been overlooked.
Tyler Technologies is a leading provider of integrated, end-to-end
information management solutions and services to local governments.
Headquartered in Dallas, the company provides software and
professional IT services to more than 6,000 local government offices
throughout the 50 states, Canada, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom.
It is one of the leading technology providers for case maintenance and
has several clients in Florida. Tyler’s professional services for
local government clients include consulting, network design and
management, installation, conversion, customization, training and
ongoing support. In 2006, Tyler had sales of more than $195 million.
It is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TYL.
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February 16, 2007
Jury Scam
We have received information
about a con making its way around the country that could result in your
identity being stolen. Someone pretending to be a court official calls to say a
warrant has been issued for your arrest because you didn’t show up for jury
duty. The caller claims to be a “jury coordinator.’’ If you protest that you
never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks for your Social
Security number and a date of birth so he or she can allegedly verify the
information and cancel the arrest warrant.
In Orange County, when you are
summoned for jury duty, you receive a notice in the mail that you fill out and
return. A phone number also is provided for you to call before showing up. We
take the privilege and duty of jury service very seriously, and a fine for
contempt of court can be issued if you fail to appear without notice. In the
Ninth Judicial Circuit, no one calls your home. Do not give out your
personal information on the phone, and if someone calls attempting this con,
you should contact the authorities.
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November, 2006
Orange County Clerk Opens Goldenrod Office
Grand
Opening Scheduled for Nov. 2, 2006
Orlando, FL. -- Orange
County Clerk of Courts Lydia Gardner is excited to announce the
opening of the Goldenrod Clerk’s Office on the booming
Eastside.
The office, which
will accept traffic and court fines and issue marriage licenses,
fulfills a campaign promise to offer more convenient service for
this growing area of our county. Recognizing that the Goldenrod
Clerk’s Office, at Pinar Plaza, is in the heart of a large Hispanic
community, bilingual clerks will be available.
“Our goal is to
make doing business with our office as convenient as possible,’’ said
Gardner. “It’s far easier for most people to do that in their own
neighborhood or near their workplace than to drive downtown to the
courthouse. Quality customer service is our focus, and this is one
more way we can make things easier for our community.’’
“We are delighted
to have a Clerk’s office open in our community,’’ said Orange County
Commissioner Mildred Fernandez, whose District 3 includes the
Goldenrod Clerk’s Office. “Our citizens deserve convenient services
and we welcome the addition.’’
A
grand opening is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 2, when
customers and others will hear from Clerk Gardner and Commissioner
Fernandez.
The opening of the
Goldenrod Clerk’s Office comes on the heels of Gardner’s announcement
of a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week payment center at the new jail on John
Young Parkway. That office opened in late June and accepts traffic and
court fines and issues marriage licenses, in addition to processing
bonds.
The Orange County
Clerk of Courts also has offices in Apopka, Ocoee and Winter Park,
which take passport applications in addition to accepting traffic and
court fines and issuing marriage licenses.
In other recent
community outreach efforts, the Orange County Clerk’s Office has
partnered with Amscot to allow customers to pay traffic and
court fines at all local Amscot
locations.
The
partnership with Amscot, which will charge $1 to process payments to
the Orange County Clerk of Courts, is another way to make doing
business more convenient for customers.
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