Washington Courts: News and Information

Superior Court eFiling Set to Go Live in Whatcom, Kitsap, Columbia and Grays Harbor Counties in April; More Courts to Come

As part of a new pilot program from the Administrative Office of the Courts, four Washington county superior courts will be implementing document eFiling to better assist court staff, judicial officers, attorneys, pro-se litigants and other justice partners.

eFiling will improve service and access at these courts by eliminating the requirement to file paper documents. This will help improve judicial officer decision making, improve efficiency, reduce operational cost and increase productivity, among other benefits.

Columbia, Grays Harbor, Kitsap and Whatcom County Superior Courts anticipate going live on April 22.

These superior courts still rely on a largely paper-based process for their document management system. Documents must be hand-delivered during standard court business hours and then manually processed by court personnel.

The eFiling service requires nothing to be printed, physically stored or transported to the courthouse. Electronic documents can be prepared and filed remotely from anywhere and at any time, making justice more accessible, particularly for victims and working people.

This change will not impact superior courts which have not opted in and already have an eFiling program.

To assist the various justice partners who will be using the system, the AOC and Tyler Technologies — who developed the system — are holding online trainings in April to make the implementation of the system smoother.

The first of the trainings will happen on April 11, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and on April 12, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Questions will be answered throughout the live tutorial. Those interested can register for one or both trainings here.

Further trainings will be held in the coming months as more courts are added to the program.

CONTACTS: Brittni Rogers, Court Business Supervisor, Administrative Office of the Courts, Brittni.Rogers@courts.wa.gov; Patric Haerle, Communications Officer, Administrative Office of the Courts, Patric.Haerle@courts.wa.gov.