Circuit Court Clerk asks for more time to implement mandatory efiling

The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin is reporting that Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown is asking for a one-year extension of time to implement mandatory efiling.

The Law Bulletin provides a link to the petition, which is signed by both Clerk Brown and Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans, but this is on the Law Bulletin site and may be behind the paywall.

The petition describes the efforts that the Circuit Court has made to implement efilng in accordance with the Supreme Court's mandate.

These seem to be the most pertinent provisions:

From Paragraph 2:

In April 2017, the Clerk was informed by the Administrative Office of Illinois ("AOIC") that, although the Clerk could continue to use OLIS for mandatory e-Filing, starting January 1, 2018, OLIS could not charge the convenience fee to users. Due to the complexity of the Clerk's mainframe computer system, the Clerk expressed to the AOIC and Tyler Technologies ("Tyler"), the e-Filing vendor in charge of eFileIL, the Clerk's preference to continue using OLIS as the Clerk's e-Filing vendor until the Clerk's new case management system was implemented.

From Paragraph 3:

The Clerk also informed the AOIC and Tyler, that, due to budgetary constraints, the Clerk could not pay OLIS to provide the Clerk's e-Filing system without charging a user fee. The Clerk requested that a portion of the $9.00 e-Filing fee to be collected for the Illinois e-Filing program be used to compensate OLIS, beginning January 1, 2018 The AOIC informed the Clerk that the $9 .00 e-Filing fee was not available to pay OLIS.

From Paragraph 11 (emphasis added):

The Circuit Court of Cook County, therefore, requests that the date for implementation of mandatory e-Filing be extended for one year. A one-year extension to January 1, 2019, would allow the necessary time for Tyler and the Clerk to complete critical programming requirements, allow proper testing of the customized programming, and permit both users and the Clerk's staff to be properly trained. This extension would ensure a smooth transition to eFileIL in Cook County. In addition, the Clerk is requesting that its vendor OLIS be allowed to continue charging a transaction fee during the extension period, pursuant to a contract between the Clerk and OLIS.

Under paragraph 1 of this Supreme Court order, free filing was supposed to become truly free -- that is, "free" filing would no longer cost $3.95 in Cook County -- after January 1.

If I were a cynic -- which of course I am not -- I would say that someone does not want that revenue stream to dry up just yet.