NH BANKRUPTCY COURT Clerk George Vannah said work continues on installing software and training personnel to convert the court’s filing system to an Internet-based one as part of the federal court system’s nationwide automation effort.

However, the original timetable of the Manchester court accepting filings over the Internet has slipped a few months, Vannah acknowledged, because of competing demands on the court’s technical staff, which is now in the midst of installing new accounting software. Instead of early next year, Vannah said a more realistic expectation is that attorneys would be able to make filings over the Internet by late spring or mid-year. Originally, the federal court system was predicting that all 93 of the nation’s bankruptcy courts were to be online by the end of 2002. New Hampshire is one of the first 20 courts in the country to implement e-filing.

The first parts of the system, affecting the internal operations of the court, are already being installed, Vannah said, and implementation is occurring in a number of other federal courts – both bankruptcy courts and district courts – around the country.

At an orientation session for bankruptcy practitioners and trustees held in Manchester earlier this year, representatives of the Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York, which includes New York City, spoke about their experiences implementing the system and answered questions from attorneys.

The clear implication from the New York representatives is that once the system is implemented, hard-copy filing would be discouraged. When asked whether electronic filing was mandatory, one of the New York officials smiled and replied that "all attorneys are being encouraged" to file electronically. Vannah said that it is common practice in locations that have implemented electronic filing to provide a computer scanner at the desk so that attorneys with hard-copy filings or pro se filers can enter the document into the computer system themselves.

Other noteworthy aspects of electronic filing as implemented in New York included:

• Attorneys-only system. In the New York court, only attorneys are able to obtain passwords needed to file on the system. "Document preparers" and pro se filers can use the scanners at the courthouse to post filings. Vannah and Bankruptcy Court Chief Judge Mark Vaughn have not addressed what New Hampshire’s policy will be.
• Filing alert service. Practitioners can subscribe to e-mail alerts on filings, and can specify or limit which filings they want to be alerted to. To participate, an attorney must agree to accept electronic notice of filings in cases in which they are involved.
• Fees. There is a slight charge, similar to the per-document charges under PACER, for downloading entire documents, although there is no charge for the first 30 days for new documents. Credit card payments are accepted.
• Computer excuses. "My computer was down" is no excuse for a late filing, court officials said. Even if an attorney’s computer isn’t working, the attorney is still responsible for getting his or her document to the courthouse on time. However, if the court’s server is down, then the deadline can be extended.
• Exhibits postings questioned. Lengthy exhibits, such as debt instruments, are still cumbersome to handle. In New York, documents are broken up into segments of no more than 50 pages to prevent transmission problems. In New Hampshire, exhibits are kept for current filings but are not part of the permanent record of the New Hampshire Bankruptcy Court, Vannah said. However, practitioners and US Bankruptcy Trustee Christopher Marshall were leery of the idea suggested by one court official of "excerpts" of exhibits being posted.
• Privacy issues to be confronted. The doctrine of "functional obscurity" of court records is being challenged by online filing, court officials concede, but no answers were offered as to how to prevent the casual use of public information in bankruptcy court filings.

Check the NH Bankruptcy Court’s Web site at www.nhb.uscourts.gov for updates on the automation and electronic filing project, known as CM/ECF (Case Management/Electronic Case Filing).

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