Four years of hard work and planning paid off for the Chancery Court of Rutherford County. With almost 3,000 case filings each year, the need was created for an efficient way for cases to be filed and managed, and electronic filing (e-filing) recently made its debut in the court.
E-filing allows attorneys and self-represented litigants to file court documents without printing hard copies and making a trip to the courthouse, leading to significant cost savings to the public, attorneys, litigants, and the courts.Several courts throughout the State are actively evaluating the e-filing process in Rutherford County with the intention of implementing it in their counties.
The Tennessee Administrative Office of Courts (AOC) already owned the case management software (TnCIS) used by courts in 90 of Tennessee's 95 counties, but the software did not include an e-filing package. In an example of public/private cooperation, the AOC worked with the State Legislature, Rutherford County Chancery Court, Rutherford County Office of Information Technology, Tybera Development Group, Inc., Local Government Data Processing Corporation, and Sturgis Web Services to integrate the Tybera e-filing system with TnCIS at no cost to the tax payers of Tennessee or Rutherford County.
"We are always looking for new and innovative ways to make court business more efficient for everyone throughout the process," AOC Director Deborah Taylor Tate said. "Moving from a paper-based to a primarily electronic system will benefit everyone involved."
The types of cases handled by the Chancery Court include: divorce, workers compensation, adoption, paternity, orders of protection, child support, conservatorships,
"With over 1,100 documents per week filed in our court, that amounts to tens of thousands of pieces of paper per month," said Rutherford County Clerk and Master John Bratcher. "We had to move in this direction."
Bratcher and his staff had been working toward e-filing for about two years when then Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon Lee called him about two years ago and asked for Rutherford Chancery to be a pilot project for the State.
"We look forward to the time when our Circuit Court and all of the other State Trial Courts come on line with e-filing," Chancellor Howard Wilson said.
