FAMILY COURT E-PETITION PROGRAM
 Jose A.* walked into Kings County Family Court 13 years
ago to file a petition to ensure
visitation rights with his child, and
spent eight hours initiating the
paperwork to get his ex-wife summoned
to court.
When José A. walked into Kings
County Family Court this past
December, he filed the same visitation
rights petition in connection
with another child and completed
the same paperwork in 20 minutes.
The difference is an automated
electronic filing program jointly
developed by the Family Court and
OCA's Division of Technology.
"You don't want to know what it
was like the last time I came here,"
José said. "I nearly lost my mind
going through the process. But now
the new system is really fast."
Under the new system, a person
seeking a visitation order enters
basic information on an easy-to-use "touch-screen" program on a computer
terminal at the courthouse.
The program asks simple questions,
nearly all of which can be
answered either yes or no.
Anyone capable of using an ATM
can use the system. The only keyboarding
required is the typing of
names, Social Security numbers and
addresses. Previously, a person had
to go through the steps of filling out
a hand-written application, being
interviewed by a court employee,
and then having that employee prepare
a petition. That process,
including the wait time, often took
hours.
The e-petition pilot program began
in Kings and Bronx Family Court
and is currently limited to visitation
cases. The program will expand to
New York, Queens and Monroe
Counties this summer. OCA is
working on making other case types
available by e-petition, starting with
custody and modifications of support.
Eventually, the goal is to
allow a person to complete the online
petition remotely over the
Internet, eliminating the trip to the
courthouse.
In light of heavy Family Court caseloads,
the new system offers significant
benefits to both litigants and
court staff. In the first six months of
the pilot, over 600 people have prepared
their own e-petitions.
The prospects for using the technology
even further are fascinating,
said Kings County Family Court
Supervising Judge Jane Pearl. "I
think it's very exciting to allow
access to justice without making
people wait," said Judge Pearl. "The
electronic petition program offers
tremendous potential."
*José A.'s full name was not used, to protect
his privacy.
Spring/Summer 2005
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