E-filing and underinvestment in court IT technology

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This morning in a House Appropriations subcommittee, Justice Catherine Stone of the Fourth Court of Appeals (Fort Worth) made an interesting point. Civil courts in Texas must adopt electronic filing of court papers between 2014 and 2016, depending on county size. (See the schedule.)

Justice Stone pointed out that the Texas Legislature appropriated no money at all for computer replacement last biennium. The head of the Office of Court Administration agreed, adding that the Legislature only appropriated $50K for computer repair for the courts in the last biennium. They also slashed the OCA's information technology budget in half.

The combination of failing to invest in information technology while simultaneously shifting toward 100% e-filing in civil cases could create problems next year, suggested Justice Stone. The OCA has asked for funding to replace 60% of computers used by the appellate courts. But once civil courts shift to e-filing and judges must view all documents electronically, nobody is going to want to view mountains of legal briefs and other such records on old, slow computers.