Board of Governors to consider updated mandatory e-filing petition

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The State Bar is preparing to vote on an amended version of a proposed rule change that would introduce mandatory e-filing across the state.

The bar’s Board of Governors will vote on the matter at meeting to be held Friday. The board had originally given the proposal its blessing at a meeting on Jan. 30. The proposal has since been amended, and the Committee of Chief Judges has asked the board to approve the modified proposal.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Pat Roggensack recently announced at a judicial conference that mandatory e-filing would be coming soon to circuit courts around the state. She has said that the justices were set to discuss the e-filing petition early next year, possibly before February.

The current plan would require mandatory e-filing of three types of cases: civil, small claims, and family, including paternity cases.

The change would be introduced in two counties and then, by July 1, expand into the 40 counties that already offer voluntary e-filing. The remaining 30 counties would come later.

The plan, originally proposed by the Committee of Chief Judges, came to a grinding halt after Gov. Scott Walker and lawmakers rejected the Supreme Court’s request for $2.2 million to initiate the state’s trial courts’ transition to the use of an electronic system.