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Vol 14 | No. 12 December 2018
Holiday Reminders
The Clerk’s Office will be closed on Tuesday, December 25, 2018 for Christmas and on Tuesday, January 1, 2019 for New Year’s Day. In non-juvenile case types, customers may submit documents for filing on nights, weekends, and holidays by eFiling in appropriate cases or by using the Clerk’s external filing depository boxes located around the Valley. Filing depository box locations are listed online at: http://www.clerkofcourt.maricopa.gov/alternative_filing.asp.
National Adoption Day Results
The Superior Court reported 168 children were adopted during the National Adoption Day event held on Saturday, Nov. 17 at the Juvenile Court Center in Phoenix. There were a total of 125 hearings and more than 2,300 visitors who attended the event. In addition, more than 300 non-court volunteers helped in various ways with the annual event. The Clerk’s Office had 20 staff members who provided support for this effort.
The Growth of eFiling
This past fiscal year, the Clerk’s Office received 895,427 eFiled documents, which was an 11% increase over the previous year’s total. The eFilings were in these case types: Criminal - 522,749; Civil – 211,231; Family – 157,820; Tax – 3,522; and Juvenile – 105. The Office first implemented eFiling in 2003 in Civil Complex Litigation cases only.
Welcome and a Recap of 2018
The Brief first began being distributed in 2005 and through the years the list of recipients has grown to individuals, law firms, schools, and associations such as bondsmen, process servers and runner services. Thank you for subscribing. In this final edition of 2018, here is a summary of some of the topics that were covered in The Brief throughout the year.
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Court Form Updates - Legislation went into effect on Aug. 3 that required updates to court forms to conform to the legislatives changes. The Supreme Court also conducted its rules agenda in August and approved new or modified rules. Those rule changes often require updates to court forms. To ensure you’re using the latest version of court forms, periodically see the Clerk’s website at: Clerk's website and the Superior Court’s website at: Superior Court/Law Library Resource Center.
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eSentencing - The Clerk’s Office and the Maricopa County Superior Court implemented an electronic sentencing system to replace the traditional paper process. In the paper process, when minute entries were created for sentencings by court clerks, the minute entries would be manually scanned into the electronic court record (ECR) to capture the defendant’s fingerprint and judicial officer’s signature. With eSentencings, fingerprints and signatures are electronically captured on the eSentencing orders, and these documents are electronically uploaded into the ECR. Fingerprints on eSentencing orders are higher quality than those obtained manually on paper and these prints can be used by prosecuting agencies to prove a defendant’s prior convictions, if needed. The fingerprinting devices used in the courtrooms immediately send the defendant’s prints electronically to the Department of Public Safety’s central state repository.
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Civil Cover Sheet and Civil Subpoena Form Update - The Maricopa County Civil Cover Sheet and the Civil Subpoena forms were updated with new, required language. You can find the new forms online at: https://superiorcourt.maricopa.gov/llrc/civil-court-forms/ (Frequently Used Forms).
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Probate Filing Counter Move – In July, the Clerk’s Probate Filing Counter moved out of the Old Courthouse in downtown Phoenix. Probate filings are now handled at the Clerk’s filing counter located in the Central Court Building and at the Clerk’s filing counter inside the Law Library Resource Center in the East Court Building.
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Juvenile eFiling – eFiling began in June for juvenile delinquency cases through the Clerk’s eFiling Online website. In this first phase of implementing eFiling in the juvenile case type, attorneys and self-represented parties involved in delinquency cases were able to electronically file case documents after the case had been initiated with the Clerk’s Office.
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Number 1 - For the second year in a row, the Clerk’s Office took first place in the state’s tax intercept program, which collects monies owed to the court through intercepting the tax returns from non-compliant individuals. The Office collected $2,136,942, which is $364,576 more than the previous year.
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Electronically Certified Seals - In February, the Clerk’s Office expanded its process of providing electronically certified copies of certain court documents. Applying an electronic certification to an electronic or paper document was a change from the traditional format of manually applying a raised certification seal onto paper. Some features of eCertification include: non-raised Maricopa County Superior Court seal; statutory eCertification language; date and time the eCertification was completed; name of the deputy clerk performing the eCertification; a statement of electronic certification; and a unique certified document-file locator number to identify each eCertified document.
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Online Appointments for Marriage Licenses/Passports - In January and February, the Clerk’s Office introduced an online reservation system for marriage licenses and passport application appointments. The service, which is available on the Clerk’s website, allows customers to choose the date, time, and location of the service they want, and sends an email or text reminder as the appointment gets closer.
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