Clerk of Courts begins e-filing of documents

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SIDNEY — Webster’s Dictionary defines progress as a forward or onward movement or a gradual betterment.

“Both of these have been true in the Shelby County Clerk of Courts Office in 2016,” said Clerk of Courts Michele Mumford. “Last year the legal office went live on a new case management system. This paved the way for progressing toward electronic filing (e-filing) in 2016.

“We began receiving electronic filings on civil cases in August and on domestic cases in October,” she said.

Her report continues:

In 2017, we will begin accepting e-filing on criminal cases. While the process has not arrived at its destination it is a gradual betterment. We will continue this progress by transitioning to more electronic filings. Our updated Court Management Software has been up and running most of 2016. While we have encountered a few bumps in the road things are progressing well.

Our Title Department has spent 2016 working with the Ohio Department of Public Safety to move forward with a new Statewide Automated Title Processing System (ATPS). Shelby County was able to send a representative to participate in the final testing process for ATPS. This gives us an advantage going into the new system since we have had the opportunity to enter practice titles and talk directly to the development team about expected software behavior.

Shelby County was one of a handful of counties that volunteered to come in on Dec. 31 and process titles to test the implementation of the new system. While we were not able to be open to the public, we were able to login to all computers and enter a couple dozen titles into the system. This gave us a chance to make sure that everything was working as expected and that we were ready to go live on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017.

The new ATPS system includes several upgrades like the ability to swipe a customer driver’s license. This will help us issue titles more efficiently and reduce typographical errors. The system will also allow us to get important information earlier in the title process. In the past if a vehicle was reported as Salvage or was reported Stolen we were not able to retrieve this information until the very end of the title process. Now we have access to this information within seconds of the time we begin to enter the title. Thanks to a connection to the National Motor Vehicle Information System (NMVTIS). The new system also works with other organizations to allow us the ability to verify the address and county of residence through GEO Coding and to verify the Vehicle Information through Vehicle Identification Number Analysis (VINA). This will allow us to avoid errors that could cause the customer issues in getting plates or having to make corrections due to taxes being paid to the wrong county. VINA will verify the Make, Model, Body Type, and other vehicle information each time a title is issued. The new ATPS system went live at the beginning of 2017 and we are looking forward to this onward movement.

In closing, progress would not be possible without the wonderful people working in my legal and title offices. I can’t say enough about how grateful I am to my staff. I am thankful for their ability to adapt and help the office move forward for the betterment of our customers in Shelby County.

Mumford
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2017/02/web1_MumfordMichele.jpgMumford

For the Sidney Daily News

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