Administrative Office of the Courts, a division of the Oklahoma Supreme Court

PROJECT PURPOSE

The Supreme Court of Oklahoma has established rules and procedures for electronic filing and storage of documents to further the efficient administration and operation of the courts. The electronic filing system will be multi-phased system similar to the system used in federal courts, to be integrated with the district and appellate court?s case management systems. The goal is to provide an electronic filing system that supports all case types in all levels of court to any person in the state. The specification consists of six major design elements (MDE): filing assembly, enhanced application security, filing review, court record, legal service, fee collection with plans to be implemented by case type. The criminal phase will create a web service that will amend the e-filing web portal to include registering criminal codes, statutory fee and fine assessments, disposition types, and amended filings.

EVIDENCE

This project is already in phase II, but the lack of resources has delayed implementation. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 created a loss of revenue that has no short-term recovery period. The pandemic also required unforeseen purchases of equipment which depleted funds that would have been used to for this project.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

The court protects minorities of all types from the majority, and protects the rights of people who cannot protect themselves. They also embody notions of equal treatment and fair play for everyone. The pandemic and aftermath increase the need to protect our constitutional rights to equal protection; by providing a forum to resolve disputes and to test/enforce laws in a fair and rational manner for all. The computer infrastructure of the courts helps provide the courts the ability to do justice, to guarantee liberty, to provide for equal protection to all regardless of background and to ensure due process of law.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

This three-phase project permits the remote filing of cases electronically assisting those who may have difficulty accessing the court house. The phases of this project provide e-Filing for civil cases (in District Court), appellate cases for Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Oklahoma Appellate process. Each phase is separated into executable sprints which provide the status of the project and defines full delivery of the functionality for the different courts. A comparison analysis between previous and current court house filings and electronic filing will be performed after the implementation of each e-filing phase to evaluate the effectiveness of the software.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma