County Takes First Step to Set Up a ‘Paperless’ Court

In one of the first efforts nationwide to achieve a “paperless courthouse,” the probate department of Orange County Superior Court has purchased a $1.3-million computerized document-processing system.

Made by Costa Mesa-based FileNet Corp., the system uses a scanner to electronically store huge volumes of paper documents on an optical disk-storage system, which can be used to index the files in a database and retrieve appropriate documents within seconds of a request.

At present, estate examiners, lawyers and litigants often have to wait in line to view wills, estates and other documents. Court officials say, however, that the FileNet system will allow more than one person to view a document at the same time and, for the courtroom staff, eliminate the tedious task of filing and retrieving documents.

“This is the first court we’re aware of that will use an imaging system,” said Ted Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of FileNet. “It can improve the efficiency of the criminal justice system.”

County Clerk Gary Granville described the system as “a first step toward a completely paperless courtroom. As such, it represents a breakthrough not only in streamlining our operations but also in controlling costs.”

About 5,000 cases are filed each year in the probate department. When the system is activated in February, about 8,500 active files containing roughly 844,000 pages will be available for viewing and printout within seconds. The system has the capacity to store more than 14 million pages.

FileNet will install 40 terminals throughout the probate department, the mediation and investigative services department and the county mental health department. Three terminals will be available for public use in the probate department, starting in February.

FileNet officials said the processing system could be used as a model for other courts around the country. The Federal State Justice Institute has commissioned a study and a cost/benefit analysis on the impact of the technology on court operations.

Alan Slater, executive officer of the Orange County Superior Court, said he hopes to install the system in all county courts. Eventually, he hopes lawyers and other legal professionals will be able to call up the records from their offices via personal computers and thereby reduce the amount of time involved with viewing filings.

“Paperless courthouse may be a misnomer,” Slater said, “but there certainly will be a ‘less-paper’ environment.”

Smith said the idea of a “paperless office” has not advanced as far as he originally expected when he first formed FileNet in 1982. But he said the industry is on the edge of exponential growth and analysts estimate that it could be a $3.2-billion market worldwide by 1993.

Superior Court officials reviewed the FileNet system for three years, but only recently received funding for the system.

The Orange County assessor’s office purchased a similar system from FileNet in 1987. That system is being used to process records generated when a property changes ownership and is reassessed for property taxes, said Webster Guillory, manager of management systems for the office.

“Our workload continues to grow, but the assessor hasn’t added any staff in five years,” Guillory said. “We also save on filing space and can access files faster.”

FileNet has installed more than 350 document-processing systems in 28 countries. The applications span 18 different industries from banking to manufacturing, but the company focuses on selling to businesses or government agencies that make extensive use of paper documents.

For the six months ended June 30, the company reported net income of $3.4 million on sales of $51.1 million, compared with net income of $2 million on sales of $37.9 million a year earlier.