Pro se e-filing gets the green light.

It wound up being a quiet decision, with little debate.

Tim Smith, Florida Courts E-Filing Authority chair, asked his board members at their May meeting if they were ready to approve giving pro se parties the ability to register and use the portal that handles electronic filing for the state courts.

Although this issue has been hotly debated by both the authority and the Florida Courts Technology Commission, the authority board gave its unanimous approval with little discussion. The authority also cleared the way to give judges access to the electronic filing system, which allows them to distribute rulings, orders, and other paperwork via the portal.

Jennifer Fishback, portal project manager, showed the board how a pro se filer would register to use the portal. It was, she explained, much like an attorney signup. The main difference is that there is no Bar number to link to the filer. However, Fishback noted, that is no different from what happens in the paper world when pro se parties drop off paper documents at courthouses without producing any identification.

Unlike attorneys and E-filing other parties providing information to the courts, pro se parties will not be required to perform electronic filing and will retain the option of paper filing.

Smith clarified that the board's vote to allow pro se filers to "access" the portal is to provide access to register to use an electronic filing system. "It is not anything but using the portal; it is not viewing documents," he said. Access does not encompass using an under-development "A2J tool," software that will ask pro se filers a series of questions and then automatically produce a Supreme Court-approved legal form for filing.

Viewing electronic documents by pro se filers, Smith said, will be governed by the Supreme Court's Administrative Order SC 14-19, which governs the electronic filing process. The March order adopts a matrix to govern how information in court filings will be provided to various parties, judges, court employees, and others, and how confidential information in those files will be protected.

Pro se filers also will have to comply with Rule of Judicial Administration 2.420 which requires certain confidential information be identified in filings so clerks can keep that data out of public view.

Fishback told the authority that pro se and judicial access would begin June 20 with the next upgrade to the portal's software.

Ninth Circuit Judge Lisa...