April 19, 2017
Statewide mandatory e-filing for civil cases will soon become a reality. The Illinois Supreme Court announcement for mandatory e-filing of all civil cases included two mandated dates:
July 1, 2017: Mandatory e-filing of civil cases required in the Supreme Court and all Appellate Court Districts. The Order further provides that, by July 1, 2017, the Record on Appeal (ROA) is required to be transmitted from all trial courts to their respective reviewing court through the Supreme Court provided Electronic Filing Manager (EFM).
January 1, 2018: The 87 trial courts denoted in the Court’s Order are to mandate the e-filing of civil cases through the central EFM, (called eFileIL), where clerk-accepted documents are then transmitted directly to their respective case management system (CMS). The 15 trial courts using "stand alone" e-filing systems when the Order was entered are required to mandate the e-filing of civil cases through eFileIL or their stand-alone e-filing system. All of these 15 courts are anticipated to eventually migrate to eFileIL – and seven have already agreed to do so.
Implementation of the eFileIL initiative is ahead of schedule with 58 of the 87 trial courts currently able to accept e-filed documents through eFileIL. The remaining 29 trial courts are currently in Phase 3 implementation and expected to be live with e-filing by July 2017. In addition, 7 of the 15 trial courts with stand-alone e-filing systems have volunteered to migrate to eFileIL and are anticipated to be e-filing before the Jan. 1, 2018, mandate. These counties are Cook, Lake, Will, Moultrie, Marion, Montgomery and Clinton.
Currently, eFileIL has over 2,000 registered users and 6 certified Electronic Filing Service Providers (EFSP) partners able to support the e-filing of civil documents and transmission of the ROA in all courts. Anticipated next steps include completing the integration of each court CMS with eFileIL, the migration of all 102 trial courts to eFileIL, criminal e-filing, and online access to court documents.
The Supreme Court’s e-filing model requires the use of a central EFM direct integration of each court’s CMS with eFileIL, and the use of certified EFSP by all filers to electronically file documents to each court. All EFSP partners available for eFileIL have applied and been certified to participate in the statewide e-filing program. Some EFSPs offer free e-filing, while others may charge a fee for additional value-added services. Filers choose the EFSP that best fits their needs. Once filers register with eFileIL, they do not need to re-register should they decide to change or use another EFSP.
To follow the progress of eFileIL and monitor the courts live on eFileIL, visit:
http://efile.illinoiscourts.gov.