Electronic Filing of Court Reports

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2011

The goal of the implementation of electronic filing (E-Filing) of court reports is to provide an integrated system in which documents filed by Children and Family Services (CFS) social workers with the San Bernardino County Superior Court, Juvenile Division (Dependency Court) are electronically uploaded into the Juvenile network (JNET) system and can be retrieved by parties to the case, according to their level of authorized access. The JNET system is a database that was previously developed by San Bernardino County for Juvenile Dependency Court information. Social Workers are required to electronically file reports on court-dependent children to the Juvenile Court using this system.. In the past, copies of reports and attachments have been printed and transported daily from the regional offices to the Dependency Court. E-Filing creates a secure method of electronically recording and preserving report filing dates and adheres to Personally Identifiable Information (PII) security standards. An audit trail is incorporated, and can monitor dates and signatures of staff who participate in the system, i.e., who sent the report, who received it, time/date sent and received. E-Filing has several different levels of access and allows only the persons authorized to each level that access. Additionally, the CFS Report Manager in JNET allows social work staff to view the status of report filings including due dates of all active hearings. E-Filing enables more efficient use of court time by decreasing the number of continuances due to late, missing, or incorrect court reports, which in turn provides families and dependent children an opportunity to reunify more quickly. The project is an extremely successful collaboration between several County departments, attorneys and the Court.