How many email addresses do you need to get e-service? Ask the ‘unicorn’
There is a “unicorn,” and it is in Volusia County.
In this case, unicorn is defined by members of the Florida Courts Technology Commission’s Portal Subcommittee as an attorney who has set up a huge number of email addresses to accept e-service in various cases the attorney is involved with. And they hope that instance is as rare as the mythical animal.
The Portal allows lawyers to create up to three electronic service email addresses for every case they are involved in. That in turn has caused a problem for clerks, judicial assistants, and judges trying to figure out the proper email address when they need to contact or serve a lawyer.
At their August 18 meeting, subcommittee members continued to discuss — but reached no decision — on limiting the number of e-service email addresses and having the Bar instead of the Portal keep the lawyer e-service email lists.
One key question was whether there are firms and lawyers who have separate e-service email addresses for each of their cases or maintain many service email addresses. Or is that like the unicorn, a fiction?
Generally, the answer seems to be no, except for the attorney cited by David Isaacson of the Volusia County Clerk of Court’s office. He said one attorney there has set up 61 email addresses in various cases since the start of the year.
“I think we found the unicorn,” he joked.
But overall, other subcommittee members found that was indeed an exception.
Supreme Court Clerk John Tomasino received about 20 responses from a Bar News article and other outreach about the e-service problems.
“Overall, the majority of responses were in support of having a set number of email addresses registered with the Bar and having that synced with the Portal,” he said. (The Portal already links to Bar records to verify filing attorneys are members in good standing.)
But another group worries that having the Bar maintain the service email addresses would subject them to spam email, Tomasino said. Others, however, noted the email addresses maintained by the portal are already public records and subject to the same problems.
As for one firm or lawyer using an inordinately large number of email addresses for e-service, “At this point I think it’s an urban myth that there are firms out there doing this,” Tomasino said.
Tom Morris of the Eighth Circuit State Attorney’s Office said e-service emails do not go directly to prosecutors in that office, but are all routed, using a common email address, through a central office which then distributes them. Using individual email addresses maintained by the Bar would make that system unusable, he said.
Others suggested the Bar could distinguish between the emails, with one set aside for official Bar business and communications and others specifically for e-service, which Morris said would address the problem.
Dario Diaz, owner of eFileMadeEasy, which handles e-filing for about 300 firms and lawyers, said a limited number of email addresses might cause problems because firms want service emails to go to paralegals and interested parties.
But committee members said the proposal would apply only to attorneys and the portal would continue to maintain e-service email addresses for nonlawyers, including legal assistants, paralegals, and interested parties.
By the end of the discussion, members appeared to agree to pursue the Bar option, with separate emails specifically reserved for e-service. But there was no consensus on whether two, three, or more e-service email addresses should be registered if that option is pursued.
Broward County Judge Martin Bidwill, chair of the subcommittee, said the panel would have another meeting to discuss options and another report will be made when the subcommittee meets again as part of the FCTC’s November meeting.
Tomasino said the subcommittee is still interested in hearing from lawyers about the topics. Lawyers can give their views by sending emails to be [email protected]. The address comes from Rule of General Practice and Judicial administration 2.516, which governs electronic service, among other things.
