On January 15, 1998, Administrative Judge Terry Bullock of the Shawnee County District Court officially unveiled Kansas's first Internet electronic filing system. Funding for this project was provided though a grant from the State of Kansas Office of Judicial Administration. By June 1, 1998, over 5,000 debt collection cases had been successfully filed via the Internet. The court has been extremely pleased with the savings, both in time and storage space, that have been realized as a result of the project. To quote Judge Bullock: "Even the forests are breathing a sigh of relief."

At its inception, the Internet electronic filing system was designed to accept Chapter 61 debt collection cases in digitized form from attorneys in Kansas's Third Judicial District. Debt collection-cases comprise more than 80 percent of all civil cases fled in Shawnee County. This case type was selected for the pilot project because of its high volume.

Before filing cases electronically with the court, attorneys first must register with the court to set up procedures whereby the court is able to electronically transfer filing fees from the attorney's bank account. No additional filing fees are assessed by the court for filing electronically. Typically attorneys file in a batch mode at the end of the day. Attorneys have filed as many as 100 cases per batch. Prior to transmission, the server automatically rejects any files with blank required fields. After transmission, the data is examined for accuracy and any filings that (to not meet the proper criteria are rejected. The number of rejected files has diminished steadily since the project began.

Once the file is accepted, the computer initiates the case and generates the next available case number. The computer automatically sets up all of the parties in the case and establishes an appearance docket entry and a docket fee. The system then issues summonses to all parties involved. The summonses, along with the petitions, currently are printed at the courthouse; however, as soon as the new law enforcement facilities are completed, this paperwork will be printed in the sheriff's office.

The court computer acknowledges receipt of a case file by generating an e-mail reply to the filing attorney. The e-mail denotes the assigned case number, the court date, and the amount of the docket fee deducted from the law office's bank account. Attorneys have been extremely supportive of the project.

The time that elapses between the filing of a case to the issuing of a summons has been reduced substantially by the electronic filing system. This process traditionally took 9 hours and 45 minutes for 100 cases. The district estimates that this process now takes 47 minutes for 100 cases.

In March 1997, the National Center for State Courts performed a "before" evaluation of the electronic filing pilot project in Shawnee County. The "after" evaluation has not been completed yet. Copies of the "before" evaluation are available through the Technology Information Service of the National Center for State Courts by calling (757) 259-1514 or by sending e-mail to lwalker@ncsc.dni.us. For further information about this project, visit the Web site http://www.shawneecourt.org/efil/mainefil.htm or contact Sally Henry, Director of Court Information, at (913) 233-8200, ext. 4102, or by e-mail at sshenry@shawneecourt.org.