Monday, March 16, 2020

Coronavirus And The Courts - The Which Was Easy Is Becoming Hard

Oakland County Probate Court as of today is no longer accepting in person filings.

Now, instead of filing a matter in person, having it issued right there at that moment and then being able to serve it on interested parties that day, we now have to file it via mail, wait for the court to mail back the issued notices and go from there.

That's going to seriously slow things down, including some very time sensitive activities.

They are likely going to a fax-based system. I'll note the Oakland County Probate Court's last short-lived attempt at an e-filing program went down in computer-generated flames, so I suspect they won't be jumping on the circuit court's e-filing program (which actually functions quite well) any time soon.

This is going to pose some definite hassles and legal problems for clients, the courts, and lawyers as well.

In short, if you have a pressing legal matter, don't wait to the last minute to see your attorney. For example if the statute of limitations runs out on Day X, seeing an attorney on Day X (please don't do this even in normal times either - it causes massive problems) and hoping they can get your matter filed that day will likely not be possible.

2 comments:

Nuke Road Warrior said...

FAX based system? At least they aren't requiring stone tablets, yet. I'm not even sure if my 80s vintage FAX machine still works.

Aaron said...

Nuke Road Warrior: Yep, it s a giant leap to the bleeding edge for a probate court. A more hidebound institution dedicated to paper, you'll never find.

I'll actually use my e-fax system to scan and send it to them.

Let's put it this way - another nearby county's probate court reluctantly accepts faxed documents with signatures - the same county will not accept that same document if you mail or provide it in person because then its a copy, but faxed is ok. Go figure.

E-filing would make sense, but they're a long way away from that.