The Georgia First Amendment Foundation is sounding the alarm over a provision of legislation mandating statewide e-filing of court documents that it says will delay the public's ability to view court filings immediately, as is currently required by law.

Instead, court filings would be available only upon their  “physical acceptance” by the clerk of the court, which could delay the ability to view them for several days, according to GFAF Board President Richard Griffiths.

“E-filing on its face is a good thing; it's faster, it's easier, it's better,” Griffiths said. “The problem is that this bill's got a carve-out that says the public can't get access to filings until they're filed manually.”

Griffiths said that could mean delays of days or more before filings become accessible, even in counties with advanced systems.    

“It also opens up a possible revenue stream for clerks to speed those records up,” he said.  

“In the most technologically advanced courts, this change to the acceptance standard would regularly delay public access for days,” said Griffiths in a release. “In less efficient courts, the delay would be much longer.”

Standalone legislation mandating e-filing stalled in a conference committee last year, but the House Non-Civil Judiciary Committee attached it to Gov. Nathan Deal's must-pass criminal justice reform bill, Senate Bill 407.

The GFAF has suggested minor changes to two sentences of the bill that it said will fix the problem by removing the “physically accepted” language and inserting a provision mandating that a filed document “shall be publicly accessible for viewing at no cost to the viewer on a public access terminal available at the courthouse during regular business hours.”  

Griffiths said that, unless the Senate accepts the amended version of the bill, it will have to go to a reconciliation committee as the e-filing bill did last year.

Given the criminal justice reform bill's importance, said Griffiths, “I don't think that will happen this year. It's probably on track to pass, and that's not a good thing for this particular component.”