Portal sees high filings after coping with COVID for the past year
Electronic filings in Florida’s courts continued a strong comeback in April and May from pandemic lows, including setting a record for average daily filings and new case filings in the latter month.
The Florida Courts E-Filing Authority, which manages the court system’s statewide e-filing Portal, got a look at the latest information at its June 15 meeting. It received the May report shortly after hearing its 2020-21 annual report reflecting a strong year despite the effects from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Average weekday filings in May hit 86,272. That eclipsed the previous record set in March of 80,119. For April, the average weekday filings were 79,770.
New cases for May hit 123,476, also a record. That compares with 110,009 in April and 115,680 for March, which was the previous record.
And May also saw the higher hourly average for filings, when the average for the 3 to 4 p.m. time (traditionally the busiest time for the Portal) hit 9,788, surpassing the previous high mark in March of 9,389.
March still remains the highpoint for submissions and documents filed, with almost 2.7 million documents filed in 1.8 million submissions. For April, there were 2.55 million documents filed in 1.7 million submissions and in May there were almost 2.53 million documents filed in just under 1.7 million submissions.
The Portal automatically delivered just over 1.8 million e-service emails each in April and May.
The filing numbers represent a steady increase from last year, when at the start of the pandemic the number of documents filed was about 1.8 million for both April and May 2020 and submissions were about 1.2 million for each month. Those were about 20% lower than the pre-pandemic levels.
Authority Vice Chair and Gilchrist County Clerk of Court Todd Newton, in delivering the annual report on behalf of Chair and Sarasota Clerk of Court Karen Rushing, said the Portal helped lawyers and judges adapt to remote work during the pandemic.
“It is auspicious to note that for this 10th year [of the Portal’s operation] we have all had one of the most challenging years of our lives,” Newton said. “We have all weathered courthouse shutdowns, new methods for daily work and managing our work activities, including managing dramatic shifts to remote activities. Despite the challenges we faced on a daily basis, the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal was available all day, every day.
“The Florida Courts E-Filing Portal has allowed attorneys and others to continue to file in the Florida court system. The Portal allowed clerks to continue to file cases and allowed the judges and attorneys to have timely access to those cases. There was no shift to remote work for the Portal. In that sense the Portal is and has been ahead of the curve.”
Since the Portal opened in January 2011 with a handful of attorneys filing a few test cases, its use and functionality has continued to grow, now handling more than 2.5 million documents a month. The addition of e-service has saved millions of dollars in printing and postage costs for attorneys, Newton said.
“Each year, we add more functionality, we add more features to make the Portal easier to use,” he said. “And we add more functionality for more state agency partners.”
The past year saw a vast expansion of do-it-yourself forms, each with a step-by-step interview guide, on the Portal. By the end of June, there will be 25 forms covering landlord/tenant, small claims, simplified dissolution, and domestic relations, Newton said.
The authority has worked with clerks of courts, judges, lawyers, and others to develop the Portal, improve its operation, and add more features, he said. None of those who worked on the Portal in its early days envisioned the volume and services it would offer.
“The authority as the governing body has guided the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal to become a superhighway, a highway that passed information back and forth between clerks and agencies, judges, attorneys, law enforcement, medical professionals, and more,” Newton said. “The Portal does so much more than what was envisioned 10 years ago.”
On another matter, the authority reelected Newton as vice chair and Indian River Clerk of Court Jeff Smith as secretary/treasurer.
