Mar 21, 2004
California AOC Collaborates WIth Open Source

The California Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) has chartered "The Second Generation Electronic Filing Standards" (2GEFS). The project’s purpose is to create a new, coherent set of XML Schema and related specifications for court electronic filing and case management systems. Counterclaim together with other Case Management and Electronic Filing Service Providers (EFSP) are working closely with the AOC to solve the following challenge - There are 58 counties and more than 200 CMSs. No two CMSs are configured similarly, even within the same court. Yet at the same time most courts do not have the budget and technological resources required to build e-filing systems. The answer is an inexpensive, simple to use piece of software that will allow courts to retain their current technology yet incorporate a flexible electronic filing technology that can work within the each of the 58 counties and within the 200 CMS environments. “To achieve this goal software companies and legal service providers to some extent will have to put aside their propriety stances and adopt a collaborative posture with the intention of creating a piece of technology that has the interest of the California legal community at heart,” says Jim Beard, counterclaim’s chief engineer and architect of OpenEFM an Open Source Electronic Filing Manager. “Using open standards will allow greater access to electronic filing while keeping the costs low.” The project is being guided Tom Smith and Todd Vincent both who have extensive experience in the area of electronic filing and Legal XML. The project is in the specification phase. Upon completion of specifications the AOC we will publish them under the GPL to the public and LegalXML community, and to any other standards body or stakeholder that either expresses an interest or that we believe might be interested in adopting them. The AOC feels six to eight months is enough time for all stakeholders to test and debate the specifications and provide comment.