Doxpop - Tools for Attorneys and Public Information Researchers: July 2018

Monday, July 30, 2018

Did e-filing downtime on Monday, July 30th cause you to miss a deadline? Here's what to do:


Beginning at roughly 9AM on Monday, July 30th, the State's side of the Indiana e-filing system was experiencing sporadic outages and issues, thus preventing users from e-filing on some cases. At the time of this posting, we have received confirmation of the issues from the Office of Judicial Administration and they have told us they are working with the E-file Manager to resolve. We will update this blog when the issue appears resolved. 

If you are reading this before midnight on 7/30 and have a deadline today, the simplest course is to just go ahead and submit your filing now to avoid the need to file a motion for an extension.

If it is now too late, and this situation caused you to miss a deadline, take a look at Trial Rule 86(N)(1), which essentially provides for a one-day extension when a lengthy e-filing system outage prevents filers from meeting a deadline.

We expect that the Trial Courts will all be aware of the scope and timing of this statewide outage via direct communication from Trial Court Technology. However, if the court you are working with requires a statement from Doxpop to attach as an exhibit to the motion described in TR 86(N)(1)(d), please let us know and we'll be happy to supply documentation in support of your motion. (Simply attaching a screen print of this blog post may be sufficient.)

On the appellate side, take a look at Rule 68(M)(1)(d), which appears to be nearly identical to the Trial Court rule on this topic.

Friday, July 27, 2018

Warrick county e-file update to the update: New go live date is now August 10th!


Doxpop has just received the news that Warrick Couty scheduled go-live date have been moved to August 10th.

If you file in Warrick county and are not prepared for e-file yet give us a call at 866-369-7671.

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Warrick county e-file update: New go live date is July 31st!


Doxpop has just received the news that Warrick Couty is scheduled to go live with e-file on Tuesday,  July 31st. 

If you file in Warrick county and are not prepared for e-file yet give us a call at 866-369-7671.

Sunday, July 15, 2018

What happened to the "Cases" link in person/entity details?

Last week, we eliminated the "cases" link in the details for people or entities associated with a case.

In brief, we removed this link because we decided it was confusing at best and misleading at worst.

Here are the details:

When we receive court information for a party's name, it is always associated with at least one case. However, in some situations, the court will know that the same party is associated with another case. In that situation, they will connect multiple cases to the same party. When they do that, the "Cases" link showed all of the associated cases.

But here's the hitch: Sometimes the court doesn't have enough information to know that two people with the same name are really the same people. It would be a serious mistake to associate the "Jane Smith" who has a traffic infraction case with the "Jane Smith" with a murder case. So, if the court is not absolutely sure these are really the same people, they just enter a new record for Jane Smith, so each case has a separate "person" record. If you search for Jane Smith and find 20 records, they may all be for the same person, or they may be for 20 different people who happen to have the same name.

Entering the extra record is how the court indicates "We don't know that these two Jane Smiths are the same people."

The problem is that when we displayed the "Cases" link for a party record, we could only show the cases the court associated with this party record. However, the people clicking on these links might assume that if only one case shows up, there are no others for the name "Jane Smith". That is often incorrect, so we stopped showing the link to avoid confusion.

If you need to check out every case for a person, the best way to do that is to search for the person's name, which will then show all cases associated with a person who has that name. Then look at the case details for every case and check the details carefully so you can make your own informed decision about whether this case is for the person you are researching. 

There may be situations where there just isn't enough information to tell. In that situation, you should be very careful not to draw a conclusion that isn't supported by the information.

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Warrick E-Filing rollout delayed a couple of weeks.


We just learned that the begin date for e-filing in Warrick County has been put off due to a delay in processing "financial paperwork." (Yes... a paperless system delayed by paperwork. We're chuckling too!)

We are unsure of the new date at this time, but folks near the process said to expect at least a two-week delay, so maybe early August. Of course, if we learn of that new date we'll let you know.

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

We have an appealing new feature that you aren't allowed to use yet. (But you should learn about it anyway.)



In March, several amendments to the appellate rules were proposed to enable (and require) e-filing of the Notice of Appeal that initiates an appellate case.

Doxpop anticipated an order approving these amendments on July 1, but that hasn't happened yet, so it is now possible to initiate appellate cases via Doxpop, but you probably shouldn't use this feature until you see the order that requires it. We have been told to expect this order on or around August 1 and of course, we will let you know as soon as we see that happen.

In the meantime, let's learn how it works:

Filing a Notice of Appeal is simple and not all that different from filing in the trial courts. The main differences are that you will need to enter information about the lower court case and you have the ability to attach any number of service contacts on your initial filing to comply with the multiple service requirements in rule 24(A)(1).

Here's what you need to know:

A) You will be able to attach multiple service contacts:

The most significant difference you will see when filing an appeals case will be the ability to electronically serve multiple public service contacts on the initial filing. Although not all of the people listed in rule 24(A)(1) will have public service contacts, you should attach those that are available at the time of filing.



This is done using a service contact selection tool very similar to the tool you use when doing subsequent filings for trial courts. You may select service contacts from your private contact list and from the public contact list to be served. You may choose to have those contacts be attached to the case once created or just use them to serve this filing only. We automatically default to having them attached, as this is the most likely scenario.


B) Fees will look different:



Since fees are based on the type of document rather than the case type, the fee amount under case type will always say "$0" but the correct fee will be displayed when you select your filing type.












Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Reminder that Doxpop offices will be closed July 4th in observance on Independence day.


We understand that sometimes you have to deal with an emergency situation during a holiday so here's how to get help over the holiday:

We will not be monitoring phone lines, so you must use email. One of our managers will be checking email periodically throughout the day. If you have a real emergency, please send an email to support@doxpop.com that contains a brief description of the problem and phone number we can call to reach you.

Please be respectful when using this option. It's for real emergencies that can't wait until Thursday morning.