Inadmissible: Improved SCOTX E-Filing

Many lawyers experience divorce, but not all of them try to allay the fears of other people’s children whose own parents are divorcing. Civil litigator Kerry Lance McGill and his wife divorced after 17 years of marriage, and McGill said he struggled to communicate his feelings to his then-10-year-old daughter. What started as a poem that McGill wrote for his daughter’s birthday eventually morphed into a children’s book, “Bear’s Flower,” meant to help other parents and kids talk about their feelings during a divorce. “The hardest part of divorce is the anxiety of being away from your children and the stress, obviously, it puts on the parent—but also the fear you put on the child,” said McGill. The president of Greer & McGill in Austin, he represents plaintiffs and defendants in personal injury, oil and gas, and real estate matters. “The theme throughout is parental love. We can’t, as parents, control everything that affects us in our lives. … But one thing we can control is our expression of love to our children,” he said. McGill explained that, in the book, a bear “awakens,” and he begins to recognize that “there are things around him that are unique, different and special. He takes an interest in a seed that becomes a flower.” As the seasons change, the bear’s focus on the flower drifts as he faces stress from the outside world. He fights with his mate, and times are hard for the flower, much like a child’s life becomes difficult during parental conflict. But eventually the bear, now older and wiser, begins to appreciate the flower’s radiance and what it contributes to the others living in the forest. “From a parental perspective, I think it gives you a foundation to sit down with a child or grandchild, to kind of open the lines of communication,” said McGill. “Hopefully, it will help some other little girl feel better or some other parent going through a divorce to feel better.”

Improved SCOTX E-Filing

The Texas Supreme Court recently made some changes that might make electronic filing of court documents easier for lawyers. In a March 21 order, the high court approved new technology standards by the Judicial Committee on Information Technology, which includes uniform, statewide codes for e-filings and specific reasons why court clerks may reject an e-filing. JCIT Chairwoman Rebecca Simmons explained that there was “some confusion” previously because the same document could go by a different code county-by-county. But now the codes will be the same across Texas’ 254 counties. “It will be more uniform across the state and much more easy for when you file your documents. Everyone will be working off the same type of e-filing case types and filing types,” said Simmons, associate general counsel of Kinetic Concepts Inc. in San Antonio and a former justice on the Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio. The standard e-filing codes include broad “case categories” that are then broken down into “case types.” For example, the “Civil–Employment” category includes the case types of discrimination, retaliation, termination and more. Each category also includes standard codes for different types of documents. The high court also spelled out eight reasons why a clerk may ask a filer to correct an e-filed document. Among other things, clerks may ask for corrections if: There were insufficient fees; the credit card was declined; the document was addressed to the wrong clerk; the document included incorrect or incomplete information; the document was formatted incorrectly; multiple documents were combined in one PDF; the document was illegible or unreadable; or sensitive data like a Social Security number wasn’t redacted as necessary. Simmons said that the JCIT saw data showing that some clerks rejected a high percentage of e-filings while others rejected few. “It was clear there was some confusion about when the clerk has the ability or what is required for rejection,” she said.

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