The Young Lawyers Advisory Board recently wrote about issues with eCourts. Following our editorial, we met with representatives from the Judiciary, and we were happy to learn that the Judiciary is interested in hearing from practitioners regarding ways to improve eCourts and electronic filing.

If practitioners are experiencing issues or have suggestions for improvement, the comments should be directed to the Judiciary staff at [email protected].

The Board was able to obtain clarification that when motions are electronically filed, a courtesy hard copy must be sent to the court, but that there is no set time frame. There had been a manual for electronic filing that erroneously stated there was a 48-hour requirement, but we confirmed that is not the case. We had indicated that if there was such a requirement, electronic filing would not save practitioners money because they would still have to rely upon overnight mail services.

In addition, the Board gave input that the use of the term “movant” to list who is filing a document (rather than the party filing a motion) is confusing. The Judiciary IT staff is looking into the issue.

Based upon the Judiciary's response to our concerns, we are confident that we are moving in the right direction to improving the eCourts system. Since we live in a digital age, the future of our court system is electronic. We are happy to hear that the Judiciary is receptive to input from practitioners.

The NJLJ Young Lawyers Advisory Board is a diverse group of young attorneys from around the state. Follow them on Twitter, @YoungLawyersNJL.

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