Getting off the e-service list from old cases can be trying
Lawyers, judges, and other parties who find themselves receiving and, in some cases, inundated with e-service documents from active cases they are no longer involved with may soon find it easier to get off the automatic electronic service lists for those cases.
The Florida Courts Technology Commission and its Portal Subcommittee discussed the issue at their August 19-20 meetings. The problem comes from instances where judges, lawyers, and other parties were added by a third party, usually a lawyer to a case’s e-service list, which is maintained in the court system’s statewide e-filing Portal.
“We routinely have to deal with managing users or litigants who want their email addresses removed from the service list and it is now in the Portal. Whoever added you to the list is the same one that has to remove you,” said Roberto Adelardi, chief information officer for the 11th Circuit.
When a lawyer or judge adds themselves to a services list, they have the ability to remove themselves. When they are added by another lawyer or party, it’s that other lawyer or party that can remove them, although there are some other options.
Carolyn Weber, Portal project manager for the Florida Courts E-Filing Authority, which manages the Portal, explained when the Portal and its electronic service was set up, there was concern by FCTC members that lawyers and other parties who were added to service lists would attempt to avoid service by taking themselves off the list. So, it was made harder for them to do that.
She said there are three options for lawyers in those situations. One is that the initial e-service email from a case will have a link that allows the attorney or judge to remove themselves from that case service list. Subsequent e-service emails from that list will not have the link, so lawyers would have to find the initial email.
Another option is lawyers and judges on their portal account can, on their My Cases page, pull a list of all cases where another person added them to the service list. That list has an option to remove their names from the list. Yanitza Madrigal, a technology officer with the 11th Circuit, said they tested that approach and were unable to remove anyone from the service list who had been added by the third party. Weber said that option only works in cases where the lawyer or judge has had a filing accepted in that case.
The third option, she said, is to contact the Portal Service Desk to get removed from a service list.
Fourth District Court of Appeal Clerk Lonn Weissblum suggested the link to allow removal from a list be added to all e-service emails and not just the initial one. Weber said that would be a relatively easy change to make and she said she would take that idea to Portal authorities. If they approve, that modification could be made within months during one of the Portal’s regular software updates.
Subcommittee member and Board of Governors member Laird Lile asked if other members on an e-service list are notified when a lawyer, judge, or other party removes themselves from the list. Weber replied that happens except in cases where a member goes through the service desk.
Lile called that notification an important safeguard to ensure games aren’t played with the e-service process.
Subcommittee member Murray Silverstein said there should be a method that when lawyers file judicial orders removing them from a case that they are automatically removed from the e-service list for that case without lawyers having to remove themselves from the service list.
Weber said that could be difficult because the Portal, which maintains the e-service list, passes information from filers to clerks but is not set up to take information back from the court system.
Silverstein said the task could be assigned to clerks, and that such an automatic system would be a boon to lawyers.
Subcommittee Chair and 17th Circuit Judge Martin Bidwill, noted support on the subcommittee for Weissblum’s suggestion while Silverstein’s proposal “is a longer-term project.”
At the full FCTC meeting, FCTC Chair and Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Lisa Munyon asked if judges get the email notification when they are added to a service list. Weber said they do, but the email does not display on their judicial viewers.
“If you have 3,000 cases, it’s a bit disruptive,” Munyon said.
Adelardi said the problem for both judges and lawyers is the initial email that allows them to leave a list can be overlooked in the flood of service and other email they regularly get.
“They’re being ignored,” he said. “The capability has to be looked into so they can remove themselves.”
