CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s largest and busiest judicial circuit will switch to e-filing beginning Monday.
Preparation for the conversion has been taking place in Kanawha County for about 14 months.
No longer will attorneys have to go to the courthouse to file paper copies of lawsuits, instead they will able to do so electronically along with viewing updates to the various criminal, civil and Family Court case electronically.
“Our staff is excited and they are hopeful and they’ve really worked hard,” Kanawha County Circuit Clerk Cathy Gatson told MetroNews. “We are looking forward to the days ahead.”
E-filing is the electronic filing of court documents by attorneys and staff, as well as, by certain government filers. WV E-File is part of the CourtPLUS Initiative to bring electronic filing and unified case management to all circuit and family courts in West Virginia. The project is sponsored by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
Gatson said there’s been hours and hours of behind-the-scenes work with the IT staff of the Supreme Court. She said each member of her staff has undergone nine hours of training.
“All of our processes that have been in place for decades will change, literally, overnight. So that is a lot of the work that we have been doing in anticipation of the implementation date, trying to analyze and assess how our processes will change to electronic from the paper world,” Gatson said.
Kanawha County averages 8,000 to 10,000 cases filed a year. Gatson said it’s never-ending.
“I’m thinking about a month ago we had 72 new civil actions filed in one day,” she said.
The WV E-File/CourtPlus project also aims to make the judicial system more efficient and create better communication between counties.
“This has been a collaborative effort between numerous offices in preparation for this new venture,” Kanawha County Circuit Court Administrator Chris McClung said,. “On behalf of the Court, we welcome the implementation of electronic filing and intend to make progress everyday towards meeting the challenges of modernizing the court”
Beginning Monday, CourtPLUS and WV E-File will be up and running. Gatson said, with anything new, there will be hiccups.
“We’ve tried to anticipate everything but we know there will be some things that we have not anticipated and we’ll be working every day to iron those things out,” Gatson said.
The WV E-File registration link for attorneys can be found at: //efile.courtswva.com/Pages/Account. People can register or visit the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals website at www.courtswv.gov.
More information can be found by calling the Kanawha County Circuit Clerk’s Office at 304-357-0440.