071: Say ‘hello’ to TrueFiling Review! Helping Courts combat the challenges of remote file processing

Steve Glisky: 

Welcome to the Paperless Productivity Podcast, where we have experts give you the insights, know-how and resources to help you transform your workplace from paper to digital while making your work life better at the same time.  

Terry Chaudhuri: 

Hello and welcome to the podcast. My name is Terry Chaudhuri. I’m a Solution Engineer here at ImageSoft. I’m joined by Ketaki More and Kevin Kowalkowski to discuss one of our newer releases TrueFiling Review. So TrueFiling has been a product out for many years now, which is an eFiling system for courts. But TrueFiling Review was recently added as a part two of sorts. 

So Ketaki, Kevin, thank you for joining me today. 

Kevin Kowalkowski: 

Yeah. Thank you for having us, Terry. You know, really everything has changed since the pandemic. You know, we, we, we think that the pandemic is really very much in our rear-view mirror, but its impact on the courts is still being filled to this day, and it’s really not in our rear-view mirror. We’re still living with sort of this changed landscape of what, you know, the pandemic brought and how courts had to really change their business to do things just more efficiently, more remotely to better serve constituents in today’s market. So, we’re excited to talk about TrueFiling Review. 

Terry Chaudhuri: 

Great. So, based on that, Kevin, can you gimme some insight into what courts have had to do regarding e-filing two, adapt to these new working conditions the past few years? 

Kevin Kowalkowski: 

Yeah, they’ve, they’ve really had to I mean obviously not everybody has done e-filing throughout the years. There’s been a lot of reasons why some courts, you know, just really couldn’t get e-filing off the ground for one reason or another. Maybe it was financial reasons. Maybe it was just statute, maybe it was just all these different reasons why e-filing never got off the ground. 

Of course, some courts have been doing it for a number of years, decades, really. It just sort of dependent on the court and the environment and, and the constituency base and, and the filers and all that. But really with the pandemic and everybody being so remote, not being able to go out for a period of time. That really spurred a need to both be able to file documents remotely but be able to review them on the court’s behalf remotely. And really, it’s, it sort of became an expectation of all aspects of technology in every facet of our lives, not just the court system in all the things they had to do to serve their constituencies remotely in this new environment, but everything from, you know, all government services to, to more, you know, our, our personal lives. I, you know, I had to, you know, apply for a loan for a home remotely and everything happens just sort of remote signatures and all that. So, it really touched every aspect of our lives. 

And the courts are really no different. So, in terms of e-filing, it really spurred a need for people to have to e-file in some capacity. And because it was sort of thrust in the court’s lap. A lot of times that fell into things like, you know, email and things like that, which is really not an appropriate way to do that, but it was just sort of what courts had to do to get things off the ground to  be able to accept those filings remotely. 

Terry Chaudhuri: 

Yeah, and that’s a good point. A lot of people do think about, you know, attorneys filing remotely, but really don’t think about the courts having to work remotely as well. So that’s a good point to bring up. Let me take a, a step back now. Ketaki, for those newer to e-filing in general, can you give us a brief overview of the TrueFiling system and maybe discuss a few challenges that it was designed to overcome? 

Ketaki More: 

So TrueFiling is ImageSoft’s e-filing platform that we build to kind of replay the manual processing that always happens when we have to submit documents to a court. So, Let’s say I’m an attorney. I need to submit documents for a particular case. Now I need to print out those documents, drive to the court, submit those documents, make manual payments, and if there, if it’s a new case, then I have to initiate the new case, or we have to serve all the parties on an existing case manually, personally. 

We built this e-filing platform so that we can eliminate all of this manual processing because even the clerks have to take the papers, manage them, put them in folders. And keep track of all the filings that are happening with the case. So, we built this true filing system, which was in two parts. The first part is for our attorneys basically for our filers, who can be attorneys, who can be self-represented, filers, other litigants. So TrueFiling website is our public facing website where a user can just go in, create a new login for themselves, and then search for that particular case. Go ahead and just upload all their electronic document. 

Now once they upload their documents to a given case, they can just go ahead and submit it. Now, if it’s an, it’s a case that has parties, they also have this option of e servicing those documents. And if there are any payments associated to those filings, they can just go ahead and perform to the electronic payment right there and there. That kind of eliminates this whole need of manual processing. Now, from the filer side, they’re almost done with their job. All they have to do is keep a track of all the filings that have been submitted, which they can do online using our portal because we give them live feeds, like what’s the status of their filing? 

As the court processed it has the court accepted it, rejected it. If it’s accepted and filed by the court, they can even download their file documents using our platform. Now the second part of TrueFiling is our TrueFiling Review system. So, we built this system for the court staff, like the clerks, judicial clerks, the judges, to review the filings that have been submitted electronically, and then process them as per the needs, be their workflow, and then send them to the case management system. 

Now ImageSoft provides two options for the filing review system. One is our OnBase system, which is built mainly for codes that have really complex requirements around workflows and who need like heavy CMS and DMS functionalities. The second one is our TrueFiling Review website, which is lightweight, lightweight, web-based application that we’ve built. And this application is built mainly for. Courts that have very simple requirements. They all they wanna do is get their electronic filing submitted, review them and send them to the CMS without a lot of bells and whistles and have a very simple workflow. So that is our kind of new TrueFiling Review application that we’ve built. 

Terry Chaudhuri: 

Great. So, with that background now. Kevin, what type of courts would get the most value out of this new TrueFiling Review?  

Kevin Kowalkowski: 

Well, I mean the easy answer to that is of course, any sort of court cuz true filing review will work for any case type and any, you know, criminal, civil, you know, probate any sort of case type there is out there. But to drill into that a little more and to really re reiterate some of what Kaki said You know, our, our old filing review, I shouldn’t say old cuz it’s still very valuable. It has a lot of functionality, and we still offer that, but we also need found a need through some of the competitive bids we went through. 

So, through showing some customers our, our filing review that some didn’t need all that muscle, some didn’t need all those bells and whistles and, and fancy features in workflow and. You know, advanced e-signature and all this stuff, and, and, and document management. They had their own, you know, document management on the back end. 

So it was, it really was overkill. It was a, it was really like just too much firepower for what they needed. So, we needed something more lightweight, something quicker and easier to stand up. And that’s why Filing Review came to be. It’s a quick, easy, easy to stand up web-based filing review that we can deploy in, you know, a very short period of time, integrate with your CMS very quickly and easily. 

And then off you go. And it’s much lower cost for that, for that use type. So, you know, going forward we’re still gonna offer both types, but this gives us sort of a club in our bag that we didn’t have before. That quick, easy standup that’s no frills, just kind of review the filing, archive it in the system, and go. 

Terry Chaudhuri: 

Okay. That makes sense. So Ketaki for, for the TrueFiling Review specifically what are some of the features that people really should be most excited about?  

Ketaki More: 

I think Kevin just spoke about one of our biggest feature is it’s a very simple. Easy application. So, we provide like access-based inboxes. So, if you are a clerk doing certain, particular certain case types or certain functionality in a court, you have an access-based inbox. So, you’re not cluttered with all the filings that are coming to the system, but you have your focused work that you that you can work on that kind of makes it very clean, easy and intuitive for this for working with this application. 

Again, it’s a very light-based web application, so getting a deployed is very easy. It’s hosted in our Azure Secure Cloud. So, it is compliant as well. And one of the biggest feature that we developed in this application is for the admins. So if you are a code admin, we’ve given them the complete control of every single configuration related to whether it be stamps, docket codes, signatures, or how rejected reasons or which inboxes to set up, how to route different filings. We have given the court. All of the control for them to just configure the court they want. So the, that kind of reduces the need of support that they have to ask us for updating or getting certain configurations for them. They can do it all by themselves and from some of the reviews we are getting, like it’s very intuitive, so it’s very easy for them to go ahead and do it. 

We also have some things like in-app notifications. So, while you are working as a clerk, if I’m working on a particular filing, I need a signature from a judge. I, so I need to forward my filing to the judge. I need to get some questions answered from a particular judicial clerk. I can forward that document and every time they have completed their part, I get in and get in-app notifications. 

So that kind of eliminates the need for me to go and keep a watch on those filings, trying to see whether they are ready for me to go ahead and proceed. And we also have ability for the court admins to generate their own payment reports. So instead of ImageSoft or instead of the TrueFiling system, sending them their own payment reports every specific time of the day, they can just go in and generate their own reports. 

That’s kind of really handy for the courts, just for reconciliation purposes. 

Terry Chaudhuri: 

That’s great. It sounds like it is lightweight, but yet configurable and, and has security that the courts are gonna want. So, Kevin with, with e-filing, we know it comes in a lot of different shapes and sizes, so why might someone opt for a TrueFiling Review over, let’s say an e-filing platform that was provided by, you know, their case management system? 

Kevin Kowalkowski: 

Well, it, you know, there, there’s a lot of reasons for that. You know, first of all, just to kind of step back from TrueFiling Review, specifically the TrueFiling platform overall in either of our review formats is an ECF conformant e-filing system that adheres to all of the modern standards that are required of an e-filing system. 

And not all, all of them do that. So that’s, that’s the first very important thing. So, Once you sort of step back and look at that and say, okay, we’re doing things that the way, you know, the way they’re supposed to be done from a modern e-filing standpoint, that’s important. Then you kind of go back into the review side of things and you know, as I mentioned earlier, we, we offer two ways of doing filing review the old, our old way or our, our original way that we still offer is our OnBase based filing review. And for those don’t, I’ll, I’ll kind of deal, dig a little deeper into what OnBase is. OnBase is a, you know, a modern feature rich document management system. That’s been one of the leaders in the document management market for years, and it’s been really a pillar of our business for going on 30 years now. 

And that’s not going away. That’s, that’s something we’re always gonna wanna offer to courts. That we’re always going to offer, especially big courts with a lot of process that need all the, the workflow and the, the records retention and the, the sticky notes, all the fancy features that a document management system can offer. 

However, true filing review was made for a simpler environment. If you’re storing your documents in your case management system, you don’t need, you know, a document management system with all the bells and whistles. True filing review was a quick and easy. And a cheaper way to get filing review done according to that ECF standard to get those documents into your case management system accepted you know, with all the features that you need from an e-filing system. 

So it, it lifted some of the price outta the way. It, it quick, it made deployment easier and quicker. And it just made for those, some of those simpler examples, you know, the, you know, with a, a product that’s fancy and, and feature riches on. Comes all these fancy features and everything, you know, obviously, but it also comes from complexity. 

So, you know, the deployment is a little bit longer. It’s a little more drawn out. You know, the, the, the back end of that process is worth it, but sometimes we didn’t need all that fancy features. So TrueFiling Review was really made to fill that simpler scenario where we just gotta get ’em up, running, reviewing filings, interacting with their constituents and their filers in a quick and easy way. 

Terry Chaudhuri:  

Great. So Ketaki we understand that the TrueFiling Review is a bit newer, but can you share any success stories about others who are currently using or implementing the platform right now?  

Ketaki More:  

We do have a couple of states that have shown interest and some states in the south who are giving it a try and have soft GoLive with the product. So, we are getting a good feedback. We are getting good feedback about some of the implementations, like related to their CMS systems as well, but, The positive feedback I would say is that our deployments are really quick. So anytime we need a feature enhancements, like, because it’s such a lightweight system, we are quickly doing those deployments, getting it out for the customers. 

The configuration is very slim down because we don’t we, we are not having a lot of complex workflows, so that kind of helps. And another thing is that the app is pretty intuitive. That has always been a plus, and we very regularly get that feedback. 

Kevin Kowalkowski:  

That’s, that helps for a guy like me who can’t figure out his way around a website ever. So that, that’s certainly a good thing.  

Terry Chaudhuri:  

Yeah. It’s probably important for a lot of us. So. Well, well, this was great you guys. I appreciate the insight into this new filing e-filing component. So, Ketaki, Kevin, wanna thank you again for taking time to chat with me today. 

Kevin Kowalkowski: 

Thank you, Terry. 

Terry Chaudhuri: 

All right. Yeah, it sounds like this TrueFIling Review is gonna prove to be a extremely useful tool for courts. I look forward to hearing many more success stories. So, if any of the listeners are interested in learning more you can check out the true filing.com website. And as always, feel free to reach out to ImageSoft directly if you have any questions.  

Thanks again for listening and have a great day. 

Steve Glisky: 

Thanks again for joining us on this podcast. To learn more about ImageSoft, please visit imagesoftinc.com that’s ImageSoft I-N-C .com if you haven’t already done so, be sure to subscribe to Paperless Productivity, where we tackle some of the biggest paper-based pain points facing organizations today. We’ll see you next time.