The Duval County Clerk of Courts will hold its next training session for eFiling of documents at noon Aug. 21 at the Duval County Courthouse.
The session is in preparation for the Florida Supreme Court's Oct. 1 deadline for mandatory eFiling in criminal courts.
The clerk's office has held eFiling training sessions for probate, family, circuit and county civil courts since before the April 1 mandatory deadline for eFiling for those courts and continues to offer assistance for attorneys and staff working in the criminal courts.
The Aug. 21 training session will be held on the fifth floor of the Duval County Courthouse.
Training sessions can be scheduled by contacting the clerk's office at [email protected] at least 48 hours in advance because class size is limited.
Steve Johnroe, director of court operations for the Civil Court for the Clerk of the Circuit and County Courts, said he expects interest in the training session will pick up like it did before the deadline for civil courts.
"We've really have made an effort to reach out to the legal community with training sessions here on the fifth floor. We were having them twice a week, but now the need has waned and we are having them once a week," said Johnroe.
The clerk's office is willing to help the legal community with the transition at most any time of the business day, said Johnroe.
"They can come up there any time and our folks will show them how to access the codes, docket descriptions. That's what seems to be one of the main roadblocks, is finding the right docket entry," said Johnroe.
He used a motion search as an example of how the system is transitioning and being adjusted to be more user-friendly.
"A customer may choose a motion. There are a million different motions. If they can't find what they are looking for in the codes that are specific to the case type, then they need to go to common civil codes," said Johnroe.
Another problem with the eFiling system occurred when the City upgraded the courthouse Internet speed.
"We were getting all these error messages and we didn't know what was going on, we were just coming in on a Monday morning," said Johnroe.
Clerk's office and City staff were able to diagnose the problem and return the system to its normal operation.
Johnroe also talked about how he has worked with staff to better serve customers when they encounter problems that don't have a simple answer.
The situation he described involved a probate lawyer trying to file a death certificate.
The document was blurry after it was scanned and eFiled.
"That's a document that needs to be clear and visible, so he tried to bring it in and get it filed over the counter," said Johnroe.
Because the Florida Supreme Court has ordered mandatory eFiling for probate cases, the clerks in probate division told him it had to be eFiled.
"What my people should have done was say, 'OK.' They act as though they are going to get in some big trouble if they let a lawyer file something over the counter," said Johnroe.
"They were right in following the Supreme Court order, but we have to be more flexible," said Johnroe.
Information on eFiling can be found at the clerk's website, duvalclerk.com/ccWebsite/, and the Florida Courts eFiling Authority website, flclerks.com/eFiling_authority.html.
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