Clerk Creating Digital Court Files

When a paper legal pleading is delivered to the Clerk of Circuit Court, the legal paper document is now being scanned to create a permanent and portable document file [PDF] as a part of a new regime adopted at the onset of the new work year.

Paper legal document scanning of closed court files has been underway in the Clerk of Circuit Court office the since 2005 with hundreds of closed law and chancery case files now forming the basis of a new digital archive case library. The digital scanning has involved an estimated one million pieces of paper spanning from about 1945 to 2004 with two shifts of workers running two scanners 14 to 16 hours per day.

With the scanning of paper documents as they arrive, the Clerk of Court hopes to close the gap between the legacy closed civil court files and the open and active. Court staff, judges, and perhaps remote lawyers will soon be able to open an active or closed court file with a click of a PC mouse.

"During the course of the 2007 calendar year, it is my professional goal to see complete digital civil court files from 1945 to 2007," Jack Kennedy, Clerk of Court, says. "The ability to retrive files at a push of a button will be efficient, productive, and offer more security than heretofore," noting there will be fewer misplaced files or access denied because of the paper file being in court chambers or with the judge's secretary.

This week Kennedy meets with the Virginia State Bar Technology and Practice of Law Committee and the Virginia State Bar President to discuss the progress on the digital case library. There is discussion about a remote access subcription for active members of the Virginia State Bar for the first-of-its-kind project in Virginia.

Kennedy views the effort as the precursor to a paperless electronic court filing system for attorneys similar to what is now required in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. He hopes to launch e-filing of court pleadings in 2008 or 2009 but is dependent upon the Supreme Court OES.

The Clerk of Court notes that paper criminal court files will be scanned in 2008 if the project advances on or ahead of schedule as planned. Data Ensure, Inc. of Norton is consulting on the system software engineering.