Electronic Filing ¿ Special Civil Part

Accompanying publication of this Notice to the Bar is the Supreme Court’s April 27, 2004 Order that authorizes expansion of the imaging component of the Judiciary Electronic Filing and Imaging System (JEFIS) to the Special Civil Part in nine additional counties: Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Gloucester, Morris, Salem, Somerset and Union Counties.

The JEFIS Pilot Project began in the Monmouth Special Civil Part in March 1999 and consisted of two components — (1) electronic filing and (2) imaging – for Special Civil Part tort and contract actions. By Order dated March 27, 2000 (a copy of that order is included here as well), the Supreme Court relaxed and supplemented several Rules of Court to permit the statewide expansion of the electronic filing component of JEFIS, while the Pilot Project continued to operate both components in Monmouth County. By Order dated October 7, 2003, the Supreme Court authorized expansion of the imaging component to Mercer and Ocean Counties. Attorneys are thus able to electronically file Special Civil Part tort and contract actions statewide, but, other than in Monmouth, Mercer and Ocean Counties, it has been necessary up to this point for the electronically filed documents to then be printed out by staff in the vicinage and retained in a paper case file. In the three counties that have implemented both the electronic filing and imaging components — Monmouth, Mercer and Ocean — the documents filed electronically by participating attorneys and scanned images of all the paper documents filed by non-participants are stored electronically in the JEFIS computers, where they can be accessed simultaneously by judges, court staff, attorneys and the public. That capability will now be expanded to the nine additional counties noted above.

This expansion of the imaging component to nine additional counties will occur in stages according to the following anticipated scheduled: Morris and Somerset Counties in October 2004; Burlington and Camden in January 2005; Gloucester, Cumberland and Salem in April 2005; and Bergen and Union in August 2005. The expansion of the imaging component to these counties will not require attorneys to change their practices in any way. Those attorneys who already participate in JEFIS as electronic filers will continue to do so. Those attorneys who would like to become electronic filers can obtain information packages through the Judiciary’s website (www.judiciary.state.nj.us) or by contacting Patricia D’Errico at the following address/telephone number: Office of the Superior Court Clerk, P.O. Box 971, Trenton, NJ 08625-0971, (609) 292-8987. Attorneys who wish to continue filing on paper may do so.

Richard J. Williams, J.A.D.
Administrative Director of the Courts

Dated: May 21, 2004

WHEREAS the Judiciary has successfully tested the use of electronic filing technology in the Judiciary Electronic Filing and Imaging System (JEFIS) pilot project in the Special Civil Part of the Superior Court, Law Division, Monmouth County, pursuant to orders of this Court dated December 10, 1996 and February 1, 1999; and

WHEREAS the Judiciary has implemented the electronic filing component of JEFIS in all of the Special Civil Part offices in the other twenty counties pursuant to an Order of this Court dated March 27, 2000, while continuing to operate the pilot project in Monmouth County; and

WHEREAS the Judiciary has expanded the imaging component of JEFIS to civil actions filed in the Special Civil Part in Mercer and Ocean Counties pursuant to an Order of this Court dated October 7, 2003;

Pursuant to N.J. Const. (1947), Art. VI, sec. 2, par. 3, IT IS ORDERED, effective May 3, 2004 and until further Order of the Court, that the Rules of Court be relaxed and supplemented, as specified in the Court’s Order dated March 27, 2000, to permit the Judiciary to expand the imaging component of JEFIS to civil actions filed in the Special Civil Part in Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Gloucester, Morris, Salem, Somerset and Union Counties pursuant to Rule 6:1-2(a)(1), so that documents filed in those cases, whether electronically or on paper, can be processed and stored in electronic form as part of the JEFIS project.

This Order supplements, where appropriate, the Court’s Orders of December 10, 1996 and February 1, 1999 with regard to the JEFIS project in Monmouth County, the Court’s Order of March 27, 2000 permitting the statewide expansion of the electronic filing component of JEFIS, and the Court’s Order of October 7, 2003 permitting expansion of the imaging component of JEFIS to Mercer and Ocean Counties.

For the Court,
Deborah T. Poritz
Chief Justice

Dated: April 27, 2004