Another important change to the EFM transition timeline

This morning, we were notified that the State is planning to delay their transition to the new E-Filing system until Spring of 2026.

The official announcement from the State with more detail will occur tomorrow, but given that we know many of you have been working to adjust holiday plans to fit the "Late December" schedule, we felt that we should notify you directly as soon as possible.

So... Stay tuned for the "official" announcement tomorrow, and in the meantime, resume normal holiday planning!

Thank you all for your patience and forbearance! This has been a bit of a roller coaster ride in the last month and you've all dealt with it gracefully.

I also want to thank the folks at the State for making the wise decision to delay this release. It has surely been a disappointment for some of them, but the decision was correct in view of the remaining tasks. They put prudence before pride and we admire that.

Updates on timing of the Indiana E-Filing Transition. (Merry Christmas?!)

We'll preface this by saying that these are still tentative, but it's the best we can provide, as we're dependent on the folks at the State for this information. (Not casting blame... We believe the folks at the State are doing their best, and working hard to meet deadlines. We appreciate the efforts of the OCT development team, even as we groan about shifting timeframes. They are great to work with.)

So:

The optimistic schedule is that the transition will occur on Friday, December 19th with a brief filing hiatus in the morning to allow the clerks to clear out their pending envelopes, and go-live on the new system in the afternoon.

The worst-case (but becoming likely) schedule is that the transition will occur on Friday, December 26th with a brief filing hiatus in the morning to allow the clerks to clear out their pending envelopes, and go-live on the new system in the afternoon.

If your law firm won't be open on the 26th, that's not a problem. We'll be there for you on Monday, December 29th, through Wednesday, December 30th to help with the transition whenever you reopen after the Christmas holiday.

If your law firm will be open on December 26th, but you will be out, please get in touch with us so we can help out. If you've done all of the preparation in advance, we can work with someone else in the the firm to walk them through the process of firm setup.

We're all adjusting our own schedules here at Doxpop, and will let you know as soon as we have a real commitment on timing from the State.

Step one in preparing for the transition to Indiana's New EFM: Financial History

This is the first in a series of posts for Admins preparing for Indiana's transition to an EFM. All of these posts are long, but don't worry! They are long because we're going into extensive detail to make sure the instructions are easy to follow. The actual work is easy (This one will take most people about 10 minutes do the work, and a short wait for the report to be delivered via email.)

The second step can be found here:

https://blog.doxpop.com/2025/12/step-two-in-preparing-for-transition-to.html

We suggest doing both of these steps as soon as possible after December 2, 2025. And of course, if you run into any problems, we're here to help. Call us at 866-369-7671 or email support@doxpop.com.

The financial information takes a long time to retrieve and loads the server heavily, so we'll retrieve your information for the past year now, and then the day before the transition, run a final, small, report to retrieve the last couple of weeks. 

Some of you don't have to do this:

• If you already routinely retrieve and process your financial information every month, there's no need to duplicate that effort- We just want to make sure the people who don't regularly retrieve and keep these reports are retrieving at least a year's worth of transactions in case they are needed to identify an expense later.

• If you are with a government office that never does an initial filing, or an office that always uses a fee waiver, there's no need to do this. The financial information is only important to firms that pay initial court filing or civil process fees via credit card.

To retrieve the financial information, login and click on the "e-filing" tab. Then click on "Create a Financial Report":

In the "Date of Filing" line, choose "In the last 12 months" from the drop-down menu. Leave the "Location" and "Submitter" lines at the default values of "All". Then click on the green [Create Report] button.

You will receive a confirmation message that says "Your report is being created and will be emailed to you within the next hour."

When the report arrives, it will be attached to an email with the subject line "E-Filing financial report". The filename of the attachment will be "FinancialReport.csv". 

Files with the ".csv" filename extension can be loaded into spreadsheets like MS Excel or Google Sheets. Open this file in one of those programs to make sure all of your data was captured. (Usually, just double-clicking on the file will accomplish this.) After you've confirmed that all is well, make a backup of the file, and you're done with this step.

Note: Some larger firms may need to break this process up & retrieve smaller chunks of information to avoid having the server timeout. If you get an error message in your email indicating failure for this reason, please give us a call (866-369-7671) and we'll help!

Your basic preparation for financial information is now complete. The next step will be the day before the transition, when you'll run a second financial report to pick up the last couple of weeks.

Step two in preparing for the transition to Indiana's New EFM: Firm information

This is the second in a series of posts for Admins preparing for Indiana's transition to an EFM. All of these posts are long, but don't worry! They are long because we're going into extensive detail to make sure the instructions are easy to follow, but the work is easy (This one will take most people about 30 minutes)

The first step can be found here: 

https://blog.doxpop.com/2025/12/step-one-in-preparing-for-transition-to.html

We suggest doing both of these steps as soon as possible after December 2, 2025. And of course, if you run into any problems, we're here to help. Call us at 866-369-7671 or email support@doxpop.com.

To preserve the firm information, login and click on the "e-filing" tab. Then click on "E-Filing Account Administration"

On the account administration page, there will be five tabs labeled "Payment Accounts", "Service Contacts", "Public Service Contacts", "Users" and "Attorneys". 

Click on each tab in turn, and save the contents of each one by pressing [Ctrl]-[P] or choosing "Print" from your browser's menus and then for the print destination, choose "Save as PDF" or "Save to PDF. You may want to choose "Landscape" to make these easier to read later.

Your browser will suggest the same name for every file. We suggest that you name each file with the name of the tab you are capturing. When you're done, you should have five PDF files. Make a backup of them.

Note for the service contact tabs:

Many of you have set your contacts up with administrative copies being sent to assistants. 

If you want to preserve that information, click on the "Edit" button on the far left for each contact, and then "print" that information. (This will be a bit time-consuming.)

For many of you, this will be unnecessary, because really all you need is a checklist to make sure you don't miss a contact, but once you're adding it, you'll have no problem knowing who the cop(ies) go to, and may want to use the opportunity to clean these up.

Your basic preparation for firm information is now complete. 

Dubois County Recorded Documents Leaving Doxpop.

The Dubois County Recorder's Office is changing their document management and indexing system on November 18th. This new system is not part of the Doxpop network, and so Dubois County's documents and property watch services will no longer be available via Doxpop after this transition is completed. 

When the transition is complete, Dubois County recorded documents will be available online for low volume users through the Tapestry system at https://www.landrecords.com. High volume users can learn about additional services designed to serve professional researchers by going to the Dubois County Recorder's web page at https://www.duboiscountyin.org/government/county_offices/county_recorder.php. You can also call the Dubois County Recorder at (812) 481-7067.

Doxpop Property Watch alerts will also halt when Doxpop stops receiving updates from Dubois County on November 18th. We will email current users with instructions for setting up new alerts.

Note: We will keep Dubois County on our system until at least December 31st to ensure that the new system is working well and the transition is complete before we shut down access through Doxpop. However, it is important to remember that any documents filed on or after 11/18/2025 will not be found on Doxpop.

Please join us in thanking Dubois County and their staff for many years of partnership and public service!

Important update for E-Filers on the State Court's transition to a new EFM

We have recently started identifying the people we'll be working with to configure their E-Filing account when the State Court releases their new E-Filing Manager (EFM.) If you E-filed in the last year, we sent you an email asking who we should work with in your law firm. As with all projects, clear communication is crucial, so please respond to that email if you haven't already done so!

We expect the new EFM to be released on either the weekend of  12/6-12/7 or the weekend of 12/13-12/14. For you, that means on Monday of either the 8th or 15th of December, you or your firm administrator will have some work to do before anyone can E-File. 

When the old EFM goes offline, the user and firm information you currently access through the "E-filing Account Administration" page will be gone. We'll need to quickly re-establish that account so you and/or your firm's filers can keep working. We'll provide your designated administrator with instructions for how to capture that information before the transition, and then detailed instructions on how to set up your accounts on day one. (Both step-by-step text and video demonstrations.)

It's important to know that the parts of Doxpop's E-Filing system that you interact with most often won't have any significant changes. The filing submission pages and the "My Electronic Filings" pages will look and act like they always have, so there's no need to worry about re-training for your daily tasks.

There is a second task we'll work with you on in the two weeks preceding the transition:

When the old EFM is replaced, we'll lose access to the information on old filings that you typically look up in the "My Electronic Filings" page. Generally, that won't be a big deal because once a filing has been accepted, it is rarely necessary to go back and look at it. The two exceptions are to glean the fee information you need for your accounting processes and to resolve any issues related to E-Service (service per Trial Rule 5). We'll provide you with instructions on how to preserve this information.

Fortunately, both of the tasks outlined will only need to be done once, so we'll make sure you have good instructions and that we're available to help if anything is confusing. We plan to have one busy morning working together, and then get on with normal work.

Many folks have asked why we don't know the exact date yet. The answer is that the State Court has not yet committed to a date. The moment they do, we'll post it on this blog. 

***There's a subscription link over on the right side of this page. If you subscribe, that will ensure that you get an email whenever we post new information.***

Congratulations to Clinton County! - Historical indexes now go back to 1961

Congratulations to Kialee Mitchell and her staff at the Clinton County Recorder's Office! 

Clinton County has just finished working with Doxpop to provide access to images of their historical General Index Books. These indexes span the period from 1961-1995, when their computerized indexes begin.

In the past, a researcher would have to travel to the county to look up information for this period before the index was computerized. Now you can access this information from the Recorded Document Advanced Search Page, or by clicking on the "recorded documents" tab, and choosing Clinton County in the "View Historical Indexes" Pane: 

When you've entered the index image area, click on the type of index you want to see in the left margin, and it will expand to show options. Keep choosing options until the page you want is displayed. From here you can use the scroll bars and zoom tools to visually inspect the index.

This project was accomplished in part to ensure that these books are available online to researchers during the several days it will take to move into their new office once it's complete. And of course for the future, these index books will be available after hours and on weekends. The next step in this project is to scan the Recorded Documents these General Indexes refer to, so you can access them by searching online.

You'll notice a place for searching by Book and Page above the index viewing window. Search results in Clinton County begin in 1995, so those searches will not bring back document image results in our system until those records are scanned. For now, you will need to visit the Clinton County Recorder's Office to obtain copies of those records once you have searched for the documents you'd like to inspect.

Please join us in expressing our appreciation to Kialee Mitchell and her staff for their work on this project.

An Important Update to Legal Description searching with Subdivision names

Thank you to the Bartholomew County Recorder's Office staff for helping us to identify an issue limiting our Subdivision name searching. We've looked closely at this feature and adjusted the field to display up to 250 possible matches as you type, regardless of whether you're searching across a single county, many counties, or all counties.

Our Advanced Search includes Legal Description fields for platted and unplatted land, as well as for any state or county tax numbers that have been indexed by the Recorder's Office:

When searching for platted legal descriptions, we will display all valid subdivision names for the search region you've selected. As you continue to type into the subdivision field, the system will display those matching subdivisions as they've been entered by the Recorder's Office. It is our hope that this will help users search more confidently and accurately. You may either select a specific subdivision name from the options presented, or leave your search string as entered to ensure that all presented options are included in your search results.

Please let us know whether this change to expand Subdivision name searching is helpful to you or whether you other great suggestions that we can hear! Here's a simple form for submitting your search suggestions: https://forms.gle/KemDDJYHuqzm3YN89

We look forward to hearing from you!

Nope, Odyssey Is Not Being Shut Down.

 A couple of Doxpop customers contacted us today because one of the other E-Filing Service Providers sent them a solicitation asserting that Odyssey (the Case Management System used by Indiana Courts) is going to be shut down.

That is not correct. (Also, in case you were worried, the sky is not falling either. 😉)

What *is* happening is that in the first week of December, the State Court is going to be replacing the EFM (E-Filing Manager) that Doxpop and other E-Filing Service Providers use to submit your envelopes to the Courts.

When this happens, Nothing about Odyssey will change, and there will be no significant changes to Doxpop. Our goal is to make sure the transition to the new EFM is a boring event for all of our customers.

We will be working with all of you to make sure your filing history is preserved as the Courts move to the new EFM, so watch this blog for details of that process as we get closer to December.

In the meantime, relax, and don't believe anyone who tells you Odyssey is going away.

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

-Mark Twain

Frustrated by the Service contact #|CODE|# message? Help is on the horizon!

In last week's blog post, we told you that the Indiana Courts are making some major changes to the system we submit your envelopes to when you E-File. Big changes are scary, but are also opportunities for improvement, so in the next few posts, we'll share some of the ways this change will make your work easier.

Currently, filers occasionally get a frustrating error message that prevents filing. If you've ever seen this message, you know the pain:

Service contact #|CODE|# is not eligible for electronic service.

The good news is that in December, this problem will go away! ...The bad news, of course, is that it won't happen until December.

Fortunately, we've got a workaround to deal with this problem until December. First, we'll explain the workaround so you know how to deal with it. Second, we'll explain why it's likely to be with us until December, and why we think the future is brighter.

The Workaround:

This problem is caused because one of the e-service contacts attached to the case you are filing on has a flag set that makes the EFM think it can only be used for postal service, not e-service. Here is the workaround:

1. Determine which Service Contact is the issue. You can do that by deleting the current draft that shows the error. You'll find the [Delete this Draft] button in the green "E-File & Serve on this Case" field.
2. Go back to the case e-filing screen, and prior to uploading any documents, scroll down to the "Contacts to E-Serve" section and click the green slider button to unselect all.
3. Select one contact and upload a document to see if the error appears. If not, add each Service Contact, oneat a time, until you see the error. Then you'll be able to delete that draft again to clear the error. 
4. Go back to the initial filing screen, and start by clicking the green slider button next to the contact that caused the error in the "Contacts to E-Serve". This will "turn off" that contact. 
5. Now, proceed with the filing normally.

Using this workaround, you'll be able to do everything except serve the errored contact, so you'll want to note the email address for them and send them service directly. It's a painfully long workaround, but for the moment, it's the best option.

Why This Error Won't Go Away Until December:

This error currently exists due to Indiana Courts using the “ECF4” system, while the vendor they are working with focuses on their “ECF5” system. Due to this focus, the error was fixed on ECF5, but we believe it is unlikely we'll see the same fix for the ECF4 system. But there is good news! Since the Indiana Courts are rolling out their own in-house E-Filing Manager in December, we know this problem will be resolved then. We also believe that in the future, the folks in Indianapolis will be more responsive to problems like this than their current vendor has been in the past.

Thank you for choosing us as your E-Filing Service Provider. We plan to continue providing a positive experience to everyone using our site. If you ever need support or have questions, please don't hesitate to contact us! Our great support team can be reached via any of the options listed on this page: https://www.doxpop.com/prod/in/help/HelpTopic