|
|
|
| Electronic Filing Manager. openEFM accepts electronic documents for filing and holds them in a temporary queue for review by a clerk of the court. |
| Yup! openEFM has been released as an open source project in order to help foster the acceptance of electronic filing in today's modern court rooms. counterclaim realizes that many courts are facing limited budgets, while being asked to perform more. In order to help alleviate some of the burdens facing court personnel we offer a complete, electronic filing management system for free. |
| Legal XML is probably the most recognizable standard used by openEFM. The 1.1 version of Legal XML is widely supported by openEFM. The next release of Legal XML, nick-named Court Filing Blue, is currently still in the works by the people in Legal XML. openEFM is compliant with the OXCI Schemas, in fact openEFM development has helped to define those schemas. openEFM has also been made to work with the California Second Generation Electronic Filing Standards, 2GEFS. |
| openEFM has modeled its open source software license after the Mozilla License. Basically it says anyone is free to download it and use it. However, if it is used we require that our logo be present somewhere on the web pages ( after all we did write the software! ). The code is free to be utilized, and modified, for whatever purpose it might be found applicable for. The license can be viewed here. |
| openEFM is a 100% Java based solution. It should be capable of running on any system that supports a Java Virtual Machine. However, openEFM has been developed on RedHat Linux. counterclaim recommends the use of RedHat Linux for deployment. |
| No. openEFM contains the Jetty Web Server, and uses Ozone as a data store. openEFM can however be configured to use external systems. openEFM is capable of being deployed as a J2EE Web Application. Any J2EE Web Application Server, such as IBM's Web Sphere, is capable of hosting openEFM. |
| No! There is an important distinction that must be made, this software acts as an electronic filing manager only. Not an electronic filing service provider (EFSP). An electronic filing service provider provides a user interface for the lawyer or pro se litigant. An EFSP is responsible for constructing electronic filings, generally in the form of a Legal XML instance document. This XML instance document is then sent to the EFM, via https, SOAP, or ebXML. Once a filing is received by the EFM the court staff is able to manage it. |
| Code base customizations are discussed in greater detail in the Developers Guide. Technical How-To questions will be addressed there, and not here. |
| openEFM was designed specifically with ease of integration in mind. The section of code that executes when a filing is accepted has been isolated in order for quick development. It is impossible to build interfaces to every existing Case Management System that is available, so openEFM provides its own interface to CMS systems. This interface grants access to all data elements stored in the Legal XML document that encapsulates the filing. |
| Not at all. In fact, many courts have been starting pilot projects where they have intentionally chosen not to integrate systems yet. By choosing to not implement the integration the courts have saved themselves the headache of integration development until a proven system has been put in place. Without CMS integration openEFM can still act as an electronic filing manager. Since openEFM acts as a temporary holding queue for electronically filed documents, they can be viewed and printed, thus allowing a traditional paper filing to follow an electronic delivery method. |
| Currently a notice of correct transmission and document format ( valid Legal XML ) is returned to any EFSP that files a document electronically with openEFM. In recent updates we plan on adding email notification to filing parties when a cleric either rejects or accepts a filing. |
| Some of the latest versions of openEFM have included an ebXML filing client and transceiver. ebXML has components for handling XML Signatures and Encryption. This is one possible approach to utilizing XML Signatures. However, since openEFM does not make any demands about the format of a file an external stamping or filing application could be used if the court so desired. |
| There are three important events in the life of an electronic filing. The first event is when the filer completes the filing with the Electronic Filings Service Provider (EFSP). The second event is when the EFSP transfers the filing to the EFM. The third event is when a court clerk uses the EFM to approve or reject the filing. Each event creates a timestamp that is passed along with the electronic filing. In general we consider the timestamp associated with the clerks acceptance to be the actual time of filing, however the other timestamps are available if they are needed. |
| Yes, openEFM contains a billing module capable of interfacing with Verisign's Pay Flow Pro system. In order for a court to use this module they will need to set up a merchant account with Verisign. Minimal configuration is then needed in order to have openEFM use the specified account. This billing module is capable of accepting most types of common credit cards. |
| No. openEFM is intended to be a temporary holding queue of filings in order to facilitate clerk review. Rejected filings will therefore never enter the CMS, unless the court decides this is desirable and customizes the application in this manner. When a filing has been accepted the filed document, and pertinent information, can be passed on to the CMS. |
| Old filings can be removed from the system, at any time, by a clerk. We recommend that old filings are eventually removed from the system in order to save space, and to make the handling of all filings more manageable. |
| openEFM makes no restrictions to the format of documents that can be filed. We do however recommend certain formats over others, such as PDF over Word or Wordperfect formats. |
| Currently openEFM has no document conversion capabilities. This feature is planned to be implemented in future releases. |
| Yes. openEFM has recently been updated to operate using the Internet Content Adaptation Protocal (ICAP). ICAP was issued as RFC 3507 by the Network Working Group. The RFC can be viewed here. ICAP defines a network protocol that allows for applications to interact with commercial virus checking applications. Companies such as Symantec offer products that openEFM can be easily integrated with. |
| Yes, as long as the filer includes their email address. openEFM will send simple, E-Mail messages which notify the filing party of the acceptance or rejection of their documents. In order for this feature to function properly the EFSP must adhere to some specific requirements regarding populated data elements in the Legal XML filing. Specifically, a FiledByParty role type must be included in the FilingInformation element. The Actor Id of the the FiledByParty must match an Actor Id used to identify the parties involved in the case. Finally, that identified actor must have the email address element populated. |
|
counterclaim.com, Inc created and designed openEFM. We are constantly continuing to develop the system, however we do also have other projects that we work on. If a court wishes to expedite our in house development process counterclaim would be pleased to accommodate. The company contact information can be found at www.counterclaim.com.
Any software development company or IT department capable of working with Java, J2EE, XML Schemas and Web Services technologies should be able to work with openEFM. |
|
|
