Erie County Prothonotary Modernizes With Paperless Solutions’ CourtPro™: Case Management and eFiling

Nestled on the shores of Lake Erie between Cleveland and Buffalo, Erie County boasts a population of 270,000.

Prior to implementing our CourtPro™ eFiling and Case Management system, Erie County had not yet ventured into the world of Electronic Filing. Their goal was to implement a system that would be easy to train staff to use and provide a better workflow for the whole office.

Maintaining Confidentiality

With the Case Records Public Access Policy, Prothonotary staff had to remember to correctly mark documents as confidential. The number of extra steps involved made it a time-consuming and laborious process prone to human error. The responsibility to ensure confidentiality meant that an error could generate pressure for staff.

Reducing Mail Flow by Digitizing

Paperflow was also a significant issue. With documents coming in regularly through the mail, rows of filing cabinets and a storage warehouse off site, there simply wasn’t enough space for the amount of documents coming through the office. Reducing mail flow by providing the ability to eFile was becoming key. 

When selecting a system provider, Paperless Solutions was chosen by Clerk of Records Aubrea Hagerty-Haynes over all other options due to affordability and our word-of-mouth reputation, Other factors included our availability of features and responsive customer service.

After a preliminary visit to the Courthouse to assess the current processes, needs and struggles of the Erie County Prothonotary staff, our team immediately got to work.

The first step was to begin migrating Erie’s data and documents from their legacy system and map it into their new system where it would be easily searchable for both internal and external Users. All information was migrated into the CourtPro™ system.

Prothonotary staff were aided by our multiple levels of security pursuant to the Public Access Policy. CourtPro™ features configurable access settings for public and confidential records, while also maintaining sealed and expunged records. These security types were now easily selected during the filing process and made certain that confidential documents remained secure via all points of access.

• For attorneys, CourtPro’s 24/7/356 eFiling has extended the hours in which they can file a case, streamlining the process and improving service for the attorneys themselves as well as the parties which they represent.

  When new cases are created, they are automatically assigned to an appropriate Judge based on case type (or if desired, other configurable fields).

• Our integrated Financials support Erie’s chosen payment provider Govolution in accepting online fee payments, as well as walk-in credit card payments, cash and/or partial payments. Built-in reporting makes it easy for the Prothonotary office to keep track of money flow from all parties to improve organization and auditing, and reduce time spent on manual bookkeeping.

Within the next quarter, our team will implement a similar solution for Erie County’s Register of Wills office.

• CourtPro

• Case Management System
• E-Filing System
• Integrated Financials