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Bar News - February 23, 2001 Electronic Case Filing Coming Next Year to NH Bankruptcy Court By: Dan Wise In the Vanguard THE NH BANKRUPTCY Court in Manchester will be among the first bankruptcy courts in the country to convert to electronic case filing (ECF) next year. The new system will permit attorneys, litigants and other members of the public to access court records and file papers with the court electronically via the Internet. "We are moving full speed ahead," said court clerk George Vannah, who expects the system to be implemented internally by October 1, with remote access and electronic filings accepted by "early winter" of 2001-2002, about one year from now. New Hampshire is actually in the "second wave" of states to implement ECF, along with Montana, Colorado, Oregon and the Northern District of Ohio. Only a few months ahead of that are the first courts to implement ECF-Vermont, Delaware, New Jersey, South Carolina, southern district of Iowa and Utah. ECF in the federal and bankruptcy courts has been pilot-tested in a handful of bankruptcy and federal district courts around the country. Sites selected for first implementation represent a mix of large and small jurisdictions. "We will have quite a public relations efforts ahead of us," said Vannah, mentioning the training and outreach that will be needed to acquaint the public and the profession in New Hampshire with ECF's capabilities. Court staff is meeting twice a month to discuss the project along with members of a standing attorney advisory committee, Vannah said. Many local rules will need to be created or revised for the "virtual courthouse" environment accessible by anyone, and elaborate security will be needed to prevent tampering or interception of data. The court intends to keep the practicing Bar in the loop from the beginning, he added. In an earlier interview, NH Bankruptcy Court Chief Judge Mark Vaughn said ECF "is more user-friendly than some people might expect," and he predicts that the attorneys who will benefit the most are sole practitioners who won't have to hire couriers to transport documents to Manchester to make filings. One such attorney is Andrew Bronson, a solo practitioner in Plymouth whose practice is about 50 percent bankruptcy-related. Bronson, a member of the local advisory committee, said ECF promises to be "an extraordinary improvement" in practice, both in eliminating much of his travel to Manchester and in reducing the amount of paper generated for filings. Even a routine bankruptcy court filing can run 30 pages, with the court requiring three copies for itself. Bronson said even more exciting than the potential for remote filing is the future ability for the system to allow attorneys to docket their pleadings, serve other parties and obtain same-day notification of any action by the court. "This system will really bring the courthouse to every law office in the state," he said. In Concord, US District Court of NH Chief Judge Paul Barbadoro hopes the NH Bankruptcy Court's selection as an early site will bode well for his court in soon obtaining the go-ahead for ECF. "Because we have a clerk and an automation staff that have been very enthusiastic about court automation, our court has been seen as an early adopter of technology," said Barbadoro, who is hoping that the green-light for his court might come next year. The NH District Court was a pilot site for a high-tech courtroom and Barbadoro serves on the federal judiciary's technology committee.
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