Vt. Memo to the Bar, May 6, 2022

SUPREME COURT OF VERMONT

OFFICE OF THE COURT ADMINISTRATOR

SCOTT GRIFFITH Mailing Address

Interim State Court Administrator Office of the Court Administrator

Scott.Griffith@vermont.gov 109 State Street

Montpelier, VT 05609-0701

Telephone (802) 828-3278

FAX: 802 828-3457

www.vermontjudiciary.org

TO: Members of the Vermont Bar

FROM: Scott Griffith, Interim State Court Administrator

RE: Notice Regarding Refund for Duplicative Efiling Fee

DATE: May 6, 2022

ODYSSEY FILE & SERVE—NOTICE TO LAWYERS FOR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

AND OTHER PLAINTIFFS WITH MULTIPLE CASES IN THE CIVIL DIVISION

Background

Lawyers who represent financial institutions and other plaintiffs with multiple cases in the civil

division should be aware of a potential duplicative efiling use fee charge (“efiling fee”) that was

discussed by the Supreme Court’s Special Advisory Committee on the Rules for Electronic Filing at

its most recent meeting on April 22, 2022. This issue has arisen following the implementation of an

Emergency Rule temporarily amending Rule 5(d) of the 2020 Vermont Rules for Electronic Filing

(“Emergency Order”) in response to the decision and order of the U.S. District Court for the District

of Vermont in Courthouse News Service et al. v. Patricia Gabel, et al., No. 2:21-cv-00132 on

November 19, 2021(“Federal Court Order”).

Under the 2020 Vermont Rules for Electronic Filing and the Vermont Rules for Public Access to

Court Records, electronic filings undergo court staff review for compliance with rules and statutes.

The Federal Court Order prohibits the Judiciary in certain kinds of civil cases from conducting this

compliance review of complaints or other initiating documents submitted by lawyers (or self-represented litigants) to the Tyler Technologies File & Serve (“OFS”) electronic service before the

filings are accessible publicly. Therefore, under the emergency rule and new protocol, the Judiciary

reviews the initiating document(s) for compliance with law and rules after the electronic filing has

already been entered into the Judiciary’s case management system and become a publicly available

judicial record. This prohibition is only applicable to specific kinds of civil cases that are the subject

of the CNS lawsuit.

Implementation of the emergency rule has been accomplished by using an “auto accept” protocol

which makes electronic filings available immediately, prior to staff review for compliance with

applicable rules and statutes.

In some cases, lawyers and self-represented litigants using the Tyler service are automatically and

unintentionally being charged duplicate efiling fees by Tyler due to the way the computer software

operates under the “auto accept” process without the planned human review and verification of party

information. This efiling fee goes directly to Tyler for the use of OFS and is not part of the fee that

litigants pay to initiate a case in the Judiciary’s case management system (“entry fee”).

Problem

The auto accept process implemented to comply with the Federal Order does not involve the integral

step of verifying parties. It is important for court staff to properly verify parties so that all of a

party’s cases are connected for efficient and proper management by judges and staff. Also, it is

crucial for a party to be recognized in the system as a single entity and have a single party ID

number since a party ID is connected to the party’s ability to access its cases on the public portal. If

a litigant has more than one entity/ID which is then attached to different cases, the litigant will need

to apply multiple times for elevated access to see all of its cases on the public portal. The

combination of the one-time per party per case efiling fee and the auto acceptance process, that skips

the party verification step and creates an additional entity, has resulted in many efilers getting double

charged the $14.00 efiling fee paid to Tyler for the use of its OFS electronic system.

Current Remedy

While awaiting a permanent resolution of these issues, the Judiciary is working with Tyler to ensure

that Tyler pays refunds for the duplicate charges.

Efilers charged by Tyler’s service multiple times for the same initial case filing should submit an

email containing the two (or more) envelope numbers charged to jud.efilesupport@vermont.gov.

Judiciary personnel will then look up the envelope numbers in Tyler’s OFS electronic system to

verify that the efiling fee was in fact paid more than once to Tyler. Tyler has requested that the

Judiciary only submit one ticket per day for refunds as a batch, so the Judiciary tracks the requests

on a spreadsheet. Judiciary personnel log into the Tyler Helpdesk at the end of each day to create a

ticket that includes all of the refund requests to that point—attorney name, case number, and

envelope numbers. At the current level of refunds, it is taking about ten hours per week of court

staff time to manage refund applications.

Each refund is processed by Tyler through Chase bank and it is currently taking up to two months

for each refund to be received. The Court Administrator’s Office will continue to monitor and

explore resolution of the OFS auto acceptance issues. The agenda for the next meeting of the

Supreme Court’s Special Advisory Committee on the Rules for Electronic Filing will include this

issue, and Committee leadership may examine whether there should be additional potential rules

amendment measures to accompany any technological and administrative measures to address the

problems identified.

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