The Brief - July 2013

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Vol. 9, No. 6                                                                                                                   July 2013

Back-scanning Project Ahead of Schedule

The Clerk’s Office has been digitizing paper case records in cases that were filed before 2002. Upon completion, the records that are converted from paper to images will add millions of documents to the Clerk’s electronic repository.

In June, the vendor hired to convert older case files to electronic images completed the back-scanning of approximately 200,000 pre-2002 Family Court cases. This completion means hard-copy family court cases have been converted to electronic images. Another benefit of this effort is the storage savings the Clerk’s Office gains by removing shelves no longer needed to hold hard-copy files. To date, more than 500 shelving units have been removed. At one time, those units held more than a half-million casefiles. The conversion of civil cases is expected to be complete by the end of July, followed by the conversion of criminal cases. Once converted, the electronic image is the official record and viewable on the public access terminals at Clerk’s Office facilities around the Valley.

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Electronically Certified Documents a Success

On average over the past four years, the Clerk’s Office has printed and certified copies of more than 60,000 documents per year. To streamline this process, the Office has begun certifying some records electronically with a new software applica­tion.

A pilot program was launched in June to allow the Attorney General’s office to select the Family Court judgments and orders they need electronically certified from the Electronic Court Record. These records are then emailed to the Attorney General’s Office. This new service is the result of careful planning and development to establish a mechanism to certify electronic documents without having to print, stamp, sign, and seal a hard copy. The paper process has been in place since territorial days.

Electronic certification not only saves time and resources for the Clerk’s Office, it expedites the delivery of these records to the customer. Many customers will still need records certified in the traditional manner, but the Office will be looking for opportunities to expand this service to any user who can benefit from the speed and convenience of an electronically certified document. At this time, electronically certified records work best for transactions between and within government agencies.

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