Attorneys with court cases in 13 more Kentucky counties may now file them without making a trip to a courthouse. The Administrative Office of the Courts on Wednesday, September 23, began offering electronic case filing in Clinton, Adair, Boyle, Casey, Cumberland, Green, Marion, Mercer, Monroe, Russell, Taylor, Washington and Wayne counties.

eFiling is available 24/7 and attorneys with access may file case documents electronically in any of the 119 Kentucky counties that offer the program. Since the start of eFiling in December 2013, more than 1,000 attorneys and other users, such as sheriffs, have filed more than 52,000 documents electronically. Attorneys are putting the program to work, filing case documents during normal business hours, after hours and on weekends. eFiling will be available in all 120 Kentucky counties as of October 21, when the AOC launches the program in Jefferson County.

“eFiling is ushering in an important new era for the Kentucky justice system,” Chief Justice of Kentucky John D. Minton, Jr. said. “Gone will be the days of attorneys on deadline wishing to file a motion before the courthouse closes. Now they can take care of business for their clients anywhere and anytime. I appreciate the local judges and circuit court clerks who have embraced these changes and worked with AOC to implement eFiling in their counties. The state’s entire legal system will become more efficient as we process cases electronically.”

A map of the state implementation schedule is available at heep://courts.ky.gov/efiling/Documents/Filing2015map.pdf.

The AOC introduced eFiling to Kentucky state courts in December 2013, when it accepted the first electronic case filing at its test site in the Franklin County Office of Circuit Court Clerk. Franklin County was the proof-of-concept site, which means that limited functions were tested before the full eFiling program was rolled out in the pilot phase. The site initially processed only civil cases filed in Circuit Court before it and the eFiling pilot sites began accepting criminal cases in October.

The implementation of eFiling puts the state court system in line with the federal courts, which have been offering the online service for years.

eFiling is part of the Judicial Branch’s comprehensive, multi-year eCourt program. The goal is to update Kentucky’s aging court technology to meet the demands on the court system and enable the courts to stay current with the mainstream of law and commerce. The eCourt program will also upgrade the court system’s technology infrastructure (hardware and software), replace its case management systems for the trial and appellate courts, and acquire a document management system that will electronically store and index court documents.

The Judicial Branch cleared a major hurdle on its eCourt program with the signing of House Bill 238 in March 2013. The legislation authorized the Judicial Branch to issue $28.1 million in bonds to fund a new case management system and bring eFiling to Kentucky.

This eFiling milestone followed quickly on the heels of another major court technology rollout. In March 2013, the AOC launched CourtNet 2.0, which replaced the outdated CourtNet application and provides real-time, online access to Kentucky court case information.

The AOC is the operation arm for the state court system and supports the activities of 3,300 court system employees and 403 elected justices, judges and circuit court clerks. As the fiscal agent for the state court system, the AOC executes the Judicial Branch budget.