I had the pleasure of attending a meeting today regarding the efforts of Metro Nashville’s general sessions court clerk’s criminal division to go paperless (for those not from Tennessee or familiar with the Tennessee justice system, the general sessions court is the lowest level court, and thus handles the most case volume).
It appears we are just a few months away from more case and defendant specific information to be made available online. This is advantageous for everyone, whether a curious citizen or an attorney. Right now, the clerk’s website (found at ccc.nashville.gov) offers some bare bones information about cases. This is about to increase, to include subpoena information, witness information and so forth, for every charged crime but domestic violence – I for one cannot see the logic there as a public record is a public record, but Metro’s legal department for some reason has requested that d.v. cases not be put on the web (typically, the defendant knows the victim is pressing charges, so I don’t quite see the relevance to that request, but they didn’t ask me). Basically, if you go to the clerk’s office and click on the summary option, that is what is going to be made available online. Additionally, any case an attorney is associated with will be attached to their bar number (it already is, but you have to check it manually). One will be able to sign up to receive scheduled case appearances on a weekly basis by email. This should help decrease defendant failures to appear as attorneys will be better positioned to update their clients as to upcoming appearance dates, something bonding companies don’t always do well. This will help speed up the judicial process.
There is also a target date of January, 2011 to implement general sessions criminal e-filing. What they are envisioning is actually more powerful than the federal e-filing system PACER. In criminal practice, there are many recurring motions (petitions to suspend sentence, motions to reduce bond, motion to waive costs, etc.). Templates with customizable fields are going to be used, and registered parties (meaning co-defendant counsel and assigned assistant district attorneys) will be noticed in a similar fashion to PACER. The clerk will then respond within minutes with the scheduled hearing date and time. There will also be options to file fully customizable motions.
Because of the certainty of pro se defendants, paper filings will still be allowed, but since most of the paper processed by the clerk’s office comes from either the district attorney or the public defender, the efficiencies will be massive.
Closer on the horizon is that court proceedings themselves will be paperless. The plan is to install signature pads in the court rooms, and a secured signature apparatus for judges to use. Defendants would view the document they are signing and sign at the podium as they do now, but the signature will be electronically captured and saved. Judges would affirm their signature for all court actions by the secure push of a button. This will be rolled out as testing is completed.
The trial courts are not yet included in the plans due to some constitutional considerations – general sessions is not a court of record, so more can be done faster there, and easier, so that any bugs can be adequately addressed prior to the implementation of a trial level system. Eventually, all existing documents will be scanned and made available, but we are a far way away from that.
Implementation of the paperless clerk’s office is very much in the customizable stages. If you have suggestions, please feel free to email me at nathan-at-mooredefenselaw-dot-com and I will pass them on.
