E-filing portal being upgraded: authority launches new webpage and Twitter feed.

A new webpage is going online for the Internet portal for the Florida courts' electronic filing system, and the authority that oversees the portal has also begun a Twitter service to help keep lawyers up to date on e-filing changes.

Those services come as the latest upgrade in software for the portal, which will automatically generate a cover sheet for lawyers filing civil cases.

Until now, Florida Courts E-Filing Authority, which manages the portal, had a website hosted on a page by the Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers. The actual portal lawyers use to file court documents is a separate site with its own web address.

But soon the authority's site and portal will be combined on one site, using the portal's existing address. Users will first go to the authority's site, and a sign in to use the portal will be on the left-hand side of the screen. The joint site will use the portal's current web address: www. myflcourtaccess.com. The merger is planned for late summer.

The main page of the combined site will have links to information about authority operations, education resources, and updates about using the portal and e-filing. It will also have the latest Twitter updates about the portal.

Once signed in, the user will go to a page with a map and drop-down menus to enable that user to pick the court or county in which he or she wishes to file.

Notably, for the trial courts, the new website will change the portal filing procedure by first asking lawyers what county they wish to file in instead of what kind of document they wish to file. That change is expected to end some of the...