Blue Mass Group

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MA Appeals Court posts proposed order on e-filing for Notice & Comment

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Many states, and the federal courts now rely largely on e-filing.  This appears to be a step in that direction.  

Press release from the Court about e-filing

Notice Inviting Comment

Proposed Appeals Court Standing Order

NOTICE

The Appeals Court Proposes Adoption of a Standing Order Regarding the Filing of Certain Motions and Letters

The Appeals Court proposes to adopt a standing order entitled “Standing Order Regarding the Filing of Certain Motions and Letters.” The standing order will require litigants to file an electronic copy of designated motions and letters, and any oppositions thereto, all of which typically are filed after oral argument or the Appeals Court’s decision.  In addition to continuing to file a paper copy, the filer will now provide the Appeals Court with a searchable PDF (portable document format) copy of the motion or letter, and any accompanying documents, either (a) on a CD-ROM or (b) by an email. The standing order applies only to cases entered on the Appeals Court’s panel docket, and does not apply to petitions entered on the Appeals Court’s single justice docket.

Receipt of electronic copies of these documents will allow the Appeals Court to track and process them more reliably and efficiently. In addition, experience the Appeals Court and the bar gain from dealing with electronically filed versions of the designated documents will be extremely helpful in thinking about and planning for broader e-filing opportunities.

The Appeals Court welcomes comments on the proposed change. Comments should be submitted by December 28, 2009. They should be addressed to Joseph F. Stanton, Clerk, Appeals Court, One Pemberton Square, Suite 1200, Boston, MA 02108-1705, or sent by email to: emotions@appct.state.ma.us,

Link to Proposed Standing Order

In much of the country, and the federal courts e-filing is standard practice.  Movement in that direction would be a major change in the legal culture of this state.

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Comments

    • When I was clerking in Michigan in 1978 I could go into ANY court house, use a terminal, and get a list of every case in which any attorney was counsel of record, and where and when its next court dates were.  Who knows what they have now!

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      p>Also, the Michigan judges, and judges in many jurisdictions do bench orders in writing immediately on most significant issues, such as custody or TROs.

      • and they still don’t allow interns or clerks to search case law on-line (West’s Law or Lexis-Nexis). They must sit with the books and search the references, statutes, regulations and the cases manually. Not only slow and unproductive but prone to error. I asked Martha about this on “Ask the AG” on TKK and she tried to say the judges prefer manual searches because the electronic searching is prone to error. However, my daughter worked in the spring for a CA Appeals Judge and “everything” out there is done on-line. MA needs to join the new millennium and upgrade some services.

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        p>No surprise, I just found out the MA BAR exam is also still done on paper. Welcome to 1998 indeed.

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