San Francisco Mandates E-filing for Asbestos Cases

September 4, 2006 - The court of San Francisco has now made it mandatory for attorneys to file paperwork electronically for asbestos litigation.  E-filing was available for asbestos cases nearly a decade ago in this city, but few took advantage of it, notes Law.com.  However, as of August 14, e-filing is now the law.  The only documents that can be filed on paper are the summons and complaint.

“Lawyers e-filed only about 10 percent of asbestos documents under the old optional system,” said the court's chief executive officer, Gordon Park-Li. Now that it's mandatory, he estimates 68,000 asbestos documents will be e-filed in the San Francisco court every year.

"As near as we can tell, just the sheer volume of this docket in San Francisco makes it one of the larger [e-filing] projects" in California, and perhaps the country, said Andy Levy, director of market development for LexisNexis File & Serve, the private vendor involved in the program.

While e-filing will save time and paper, experts note that it will cost law firms a little more money as there is a filing fee attached to each electronic filing. 

Many other courts where asbestos litigation is found in large volumes are also leaning toward this process in order to streamline paperwork.  Asbestos litigation ties up the courts in many locales nationwide, resulting in new laws that make attempts to speed up the litigation process.