E-filing software updates to address uniformity concerns.

A coming change to the Florida courts e-filing portal is aimed at making it easier for lawyers to choose the "document type" when they are electronically filing court documents.

The update to portal software, which will be installed after business hours on Friday, October 24, will suggest document categories to users instead of requiring them to conduct a search or scroll through lists to find the correct title for the type of document they are submitting.

The Florida Court E-Filing Authority, which runs the statewide portal through which electronic filing is done, got a look at the upcoming software update at its September 25 meeting in Tallahassee.

Other changes include allowing larger documents to be electronically filed in the appellate courts, making it easier to see who has been served with documents in a case, and making it easier for lawyers to remove themselves from electronic service lists for cases they are no longer involved in.

Jennifer Fishback, portal project manager, presented the upcoming software improvements. She said the assistance on choosing a document type will help address a stubborn problem brought up by users--that the portal functions differently from county to county, primarily in the number and options for document types presented to filers. (The authority took an in-depth look at the lack of uniformity in the document menus among counties later in the meeting. See story, page 6.)

"What we're trying to do with this [update] is help filers locate the document type they need to file to the county they are filing in, by adding a search feature," Fishback told the authority board.

"We're hoping the next change ... will help people find their document type more easily."

Currently, the portal's document tab offers to filers a variety of groups to select to find a document type. And each group offers several individual document types that filers can choose.

Carolyn Weber, e-filing portal senior analyst, noted that the number of groups offered and the number of documents in each group varies county to county for historical and other reasons.

Fishback said sometimes the same document will be labeled slightly differently from county to county--"Summons Issued," "Summons Issue To," and "Summons Issued For" are all used by different counties to refer to the same document, she noted.

Also, a document may be listed in several document groups, which can be appropriate but confusing.

Weber said that the current portal offers a...