The exact rules applied for handling the email and attached pleadings will depend on the needs of the court. Figure 12, Screen shot of Microsoft Outlook, allowing the user to set rules for automatic handling of incoming email. These tools in Outlook could be adapted by smaller courts to automate several tasks in electronic filing. Courts have only begun to explore the ways to use the rules for automating business functions, and we can expect a to see examples emerge of courts running email based filing over the next year. Table 2-Summary Flowchart of an Email Filing System Built With Outlook 1.
Court receives email in the folder for the specified case.
Long term storage may involve printing to paper or microfiche. Automatic publishing of the attachment to a portable document format that can be read and printed by all computers is possible with new software. By saving attachments to specified folders, further automation is possible. For example, there is software available to automatically post documents in a given directory to a Web site, converting the documents on the fly to a portable document format. The portable document format means that regardless of the software used to create the document anybody can view and print it.