Opinion
Effective: May 3, 2004
WHEREAS the Judiciary has successfully tested the use of electronic filing technology in the Judiciary Electronic Filing and Imaging System (JEFIS) pilot project in the Special Civil Part of the Superior Court, Law Division, Monmouth County, pursuant to orders of this Court dated December 10, 1996 and February 1, 1999; and WHEREAS the Judiciary has implemented the electronic filing component of JEFIS in all of the Special Civil Part offices in the other twenty counties pursuant to an Order of this Court dated March 27, 2000, while continuing to operate the pilot project in Monmouth County; and
WHEREAS the Judiciary has expanded the imaging component of JEFIS to civil actions filed in the Special Civil Part in Mercer and Ocean Counties pursuant to an Order of this Court dated October 7, 2003;
Pursuant to N.J. Const. (1947), Art. VI, sec. 2, par. 3, IT IS ORDERED, effective May 3, 2004 and until further Order of the Court, that the Rules of Court be relaxed and supplemented, as specified in the Court's Order dated March 27, 2000, to permit the Judiciary to expand the imaging component of JEFIS to civil actions filed in the Special Civil Part in Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Gloucester, Morris, Salem, Somerset and Union Counties pursuant to Rule 6:1-2(a)(1), so that documents filed in those cases, whether electronically or on paper, can be processed and stored in electronic form as part of the JEFIS project.
This Order supplements, where appropriate, the Court's Orders of December 10, 1996 and February 1, 1999 with regard to the JEFIS project in Monmouth County, the Court's Order of March 27, 2000 permitting the statewide expansion of the electronic filing component of JEFIS, and the Court's Order of October 7, 2003 permitting expansion of the imaging component of JEFIS to Mercer and Ocean Counties.
For the Court
Deborah T. Poritz Chief Justice
Dated: April 27, 2004