A long awaited system that allows civil and family court documents to be filed electronically launched Wednesday in Westmoreland County.

Prothonotary Christina O’Brien said the system, which took four years to complete, is expected to add about $200,000 in new revenue to the county budget through filing fees assessed to lawyers.

“I’m very proud of it and anxious to see how it works,” O’Brien said. “Attorneys can now file from home or from where ever they have internet. They can file 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s a huge advantage.”

Filing of civil and family court documents until now was limited to the courthouse’s weekday operating hours, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

O’Brien, who announced she will retire when her term in office ends in late December, said technical issues as well as complications caused by the coronavirus delayed implementation of the new system created with the help of a private company and the county’s computer information systems department.

The county paid the prothonotary’s computer company $130,000 to help write software to integrate the e-filing program with existing equipment. The new system will be operated and maintained internally by county staff.

Users will pay $15 for each new case electronically filed. All secondary case filings will cost $8 each.

Emergency motions, appeals and protection from abuses petitions still must be filed in person, O’Brien said.

For now, all documents still can be filed in person at the courthouse or through the mail. That may change in future years.

“We want to have 100% participation and it could be made mandatory in the future,” O’Brien said of the e-filing system.

There were about 10,000 new civil cases and another 43,000 secondary filings submitted to the prothonotary’s office in 2019. Case filing decreased last year as the pandemic limited court functions. O’Brien said this year’s case filings are expected to be more in line with 2019 totals and about half could be submitted through the new remote system.

Stations will be set up in the prothonotary’s fifth floor courthouse office to assist non lawyers to digitally file documents.

Several lawyers have for the last month filed documents electronically as part of a pilot program for the general launch of the system. Two new cases and seven secondary files were submitted electronically on Wednesday.

Not every lawyer is ready to sign to the e-file system, though.

Attorney Joe Massaro was at the courthouse Wednesday to file civil documents for clients and said the price to electronically submit court papers in Westmoreland County is too high.

“For what they charge, I’ll just walk them in. It’s too pricey,” Massaro said.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)