Document Filing Photo: Shutterstock

In recent years, American LegalNet (ALN) has expanded beyond its court forms and calendaring roots, expanding into automated docketing, integration with document management and finance systems, and more. Now, the company is looking to expand its platform once again, adding e-filing into the workflow.

Today at the National Docketing Association conference, the company announced its new eFiling Portal for law firms. The new solution looks to lower both costs and time taken to file with local courts, as well as reduce the risk of a filing being rejected.

What It Is: The eFiling Portal is a browser-based e-filing solution that serves as a hub for all court filings a user or firm has drafted or submitted in multiple jurisdictions across the U.S. The solution can either be accessed on its own as a standalone, or as part of ALN's wider platform that includes docketing, calendaring and mail solutions, among other features.

The initial dashboard allows visibility into the number of drafts, submitted filings, rejected filings and completed filings that have been performed recently, with recent orders visible on the home page. The lefthand navigation bar includes links to new case filing, subsequent filings, drafts, search, billing, and other parts of the ALN platform such as mail and calendaring.

New cases are filed with a four-step process: order, service, payment and review. The portal allows for drag-and-drop uploading of documents, at which time the solution will automatically convert the uploaded document's file type to that required by the designated court system.

What Courts It Serves: ALN is rolling out its eFiling Portal first in Los Angeles Superior Court and Orange County Superior Court of California. ALN CEO Erez Bustan told Legaltech News, "We wanted to start with the largest court in the country," as L.A. Superior Court has nearly 1.6 million transactions and 5 million documents processed annually.

From there, ALN expects to roll out to 22 other California courts and Texas by the end of 2019, with Illinois, Florida and other states coming in 2020. Bustan said the company has already been certified for filing in all California courts except for San Francisco, and he expects that to come shortly.

Notably, ALN has a partnership with Tyler Odyssey, and its initial focus for the eFiling Portal roll-out will be jurisdictions that use Tyler as its e-filing manager.

Who It's For: ALN's plan for the eFiling Portal is twofold. With solo attorneys and smaller firms, Bustan said users will most likely opt for using the product as a standalone. For these customers, the cost will depend on the transaction—he estimates that will come out to between $7 and $9 per transaction in California.

Larger firms will likely opt for the platform model, he noted, especially given that many of these firms will be in various jurisdictions across the country. "We're able to give it to them all in one platform, and what's more important is, we're able to customize any solutions that they may need, based on the firm's needs and based on the firm's processes," Bustan explained. Price for these customers will depend on the total volume of transactions.

Its Value Proposition: E-filing is not a new development for the legal technology industry. Many companies, such as First Legal, Legal e-File, One Legal and others, have built businesses around facilitating exactly these sorts of court filings.

Where ALN is hoping to set its solution apart, according to Bustan, is in the breadth of the services it offers and its integration with the wider ALN platform. He described the combination of the portal's features, which also include a single sign-on, after-hours concierge and helpline, and integration with document management and financial system tools, as "1+1+1+1+1 equals 10."

This includes ALN's pre-existing calendaring feature, which will alert users of key filing deadlines, as well as mail, which provides a central repository for filing notes and receipts. The ultimate goal, he said, is to reduce the rate of filing rejections (currently around 10% in L.A. Superior Court) to as low as possible.

"I've heard about people that have been fired because they didn't provide filings on time," he explained. "There were some cross documents that weren't converted in time, and one was filed in another case. It's a nightmare for law firms."