The Third Branch
eFiling marketing effort to begin
About 20 Wisconsin counties currently offer electronic filing in small claims, civil or family cases, or some combination of the three. eFiling can save time, money and hassles, so it should be a popular option – but in most counties, few parties are using it. A new marketing initiative will aim to change that.
This summer, Chief Information Officer Jean Bousquet and Court Information Officer Amanda K. Todd will develop a marketing plan designed to help the counties that have opted into eFiling to raise the profile of this service.
The marketing plan will offer tools and best practices for reaching out to key audiences. These audiences include local bar associations, law firms that focus on collections, collection agencies (first-party and third-party) and paralegal associations. The effort is also expected to provide clerks of circuit court with a template for presenting information online, a brochure and a model press release.
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Diane Fremgen |
One county already working to boost the number of eFiled cases is Winnebago, where Clerk of Circuit Court Diane Fremgen conducted a presentation for local attorneys and ran a training session for legal secretaries at area firms. Fremgen asked one experienced legal secretary, Stacy James, to teach the others how to create an account and submit a case. Chief Deputy Clerk Leigh Anne Kohls then helped to answer questions and provided insight into how the process works and what they could expect.
Fremgen also created handouts to help participants recall the information they had received.
The results are impressive. In the first five months of eFiling (October 2009 – March 2010), the county received just 19 eFiled cases. After the outreach effort, Fremgen reported 16 cases, either electronically filed or converted at the request of participating attorney, in just a three-week period.
"We anticipate that those numbers will continue to increase," she said, "as the word spreads and users become more comfortable with the process."