• 5/8/2024: Judicial Branch Is Adding Protection from Abuse and Harassment Cases in Courts that have Implemented eFiling
• 4/1/2024: Maine eCourts and eFiling Expands to Rumford, Farmington, and South Paris Courts
• 3/21/2024: Franklin and Oxford County Courts Prepare for April 1st Launch of Maine eCourts and eFiling 
• 2/8/2024: Judicial Branch Announces Expansion of Maine eCourts to Rumford, Farmington, and South Paris Courts

Issues with Tyler Technology Security Plague Maine Courts

Maine Courts Shut Off Online Records Access Over Security Concern

The Maine Judicial Branch (MJB) disabled online access to nearly all court documents on Sept. 15, 2023, after learning about security vulnerabilities with Odyssey system.  According to the MJB, Tyler had announced that there were certain vulnerabilities with the 2018 version of Odyssey.  UNKNOWN: The date the MJB first learned of those vulnerabilities has not been disclosed and is therefore unknown at the present time.BDN reported the shutdown on 12/14/2023

https://www.bangordailynews.com/2023/12/14/news/maine-judicial-branch-courts-online-records-access-security-concern/embed/#?secret=SV8lIsgz0g#?secret=zzR5DP5Gwy

Maine Courts Expand E-Filing: 2023

• 10/23/2023: Judicial Branch Announces Expansion of eFiling in Lewiston and Auburn Courts
• 9/1/2023: Judicial Branch Update on Maine eCourts Implementation
• 6/5/2023: Judicial Branch Announces Expansion of Maine eCourts to Lewiston and Auburn CourtsComments due by February 17, 2023.
• 1/17/2023: Law Court invites amicus briefs regarding foreclosure when debtor is deceased, time for probate has passed, and property is owned by surviving joint tenant, who is not liable on the note

Motion to Redact Court Record Information Highlights Problems with the Release of Personal Details Included in Court Files.

Attorney for federal prosecutor charged with Operating Under the Influence, asked a Cumberland County Superior Court Justice to hide the information because of his client’s position with the Department of Justice, stating he doesn’t think this type of information should be publicly available for any criminal defendant because of the possibility of identity theft. Attorney Nichols further stated that “anyone can go down and look at a court file. There are people who may wish ill will on a certain person. … That’s the easiest way to find out a person’s residence.” Eventually, Nichols withdrew the motion  because of calls to Conley’s office about the case, which implied that there was a scandal when it wasn’t, he said. Nonetheless, the Superior Court Justice orally granted Conley’s motion to redact the information.

The Portland Press Herald 12/7/2022 recount of the story appears here:
https://www.pressherald.com/2022/12/06/federal-prosecutor-pleads-guilty-to-oui-charge/

Maine Courts Continues with E-Transmission: 2022

6/28/2022: Maine Judicial Branch ShareFile Program Expanding Statewide

Beginning July 5, 2022, all state district and superior courts will electronically accept court filings in criminal, juvenile, and civil violation cases. using the ShareFile platform. (Filings will also continue to be accepted by in person and by mail.)

The court system will continue to evaluate ShareFile for possible future expansion to additional case types and users. 

See Administrative Order JB-21-06 as amended in July 2022 available here:

https://www.courts.maine.gov/adminorders/jb-21-06-a.7-22.pdf

• 5/20/2022: Judicial Branch ShareFile Program Expanding to More Courts
• 4/15/2022: Judicial Branch Expanding ShareFile Pilot Program to Aroostook, Hancock, and Washington County Courts
• 2/8/2022: Judicial Branch Expanding ShareFile Pilot Program to All York County Courts

June 23, 2022 CNS voluntarily dismissed a federal court action after the appellate court remanded the matter to the district court. See April 25, 2022 Entry for more details about the appellate proceeding.

Group Begins Watching Maine State District Court Activities

June 2022

Under an initiative launched by a state representative and Colby College professor, college students and other volunteers are visiting courtrooms in Augusta, Waterville and Skowhegan, recording and documenting court arraignments and post summaries of the outcomes on Twitter. By mid June 2022, the volunteers observed 100 arraignments in Kennebec County.

Co-founder Winifred Tate, an anthropology professor and director of the Maine Drug Policy Lab at Colby College said, this effort is especially important “because most courts in the state don’t keep online records. And most cases are settled through plea deals.”

Read more about this June 21, 2022 story from NPR:

https://www.mainepublic.org/courts-and-crime/2022-06-21/new-group-aims-to-shed-light-on-whats-happening-in-maine-district-courts

Read more about this initiative in the June 23, 2022 Portland Press Herald Story:https://www.pressherald.com/2022/06/23/group-watching-central-maine-courts-seeks-trained-volunteers-eyes-release-of-fall-report/

Read more about the activities of CourtWatchME at https://www.courtwatchme.org/home

A ShareFile Pilot was launched as a pilot program in January 2022 in some courts in Region 1, later more courts in Region 1 joined, and in April courts in Regions 7 & 8 were added. Beginning on May 23, 2022, may begin electronically filing criminal, civil violation, and juvenile cases using the ShareFile tool in Region 2 (Cumberland County).

The Administrative Order governing the Pilot was amended effective May 23, 2022, and it can be found here:

https://www.courts.maine.gov/news/article.html?id=7726567

Date: 5/17/2022 

Since November 2020, users of eFileMaine in the Bangor Courts and the statewide Business and Consumer Docket have been required to provide an email address when filing documents in civil cases electronically. On May 17, 2022, the Supreme Judicial Court announced today that amendments to Maine Bar Rule 4(a)  will require all active lawyers to provide a single email address for electronic service in the State of Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar (“the Board”). by August 31, 2022.

The email address provided will be available in the electronic filing system for lawyers to search to provide for electronic service.

The Rule Amendment can be found here:

https://www.courts.maine.gov/rules/amendments/2022_mr_02_bar.pdf

More information about e filing can be found here:  www.courts.maine.gov/ecourts.

April 6, 2022 Oral Argument: http://media.ca1.uscourts.gov/files/audio/21-1624.mp3

Opinion: http://media.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/21-1624P-01A.pdf

Judicial Branch Expands ShareFile Pilot Program to Aroostook, Hancock, and Washington County Courts

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court revised AO JB-21-06 to allow for the expansion to all courts in Aroostook, Hancock, and Washington Counties. Prosecuting and defense attorneys will be able to use the ShareFile platform as an online sharing tool and to submit filings in criminal, civil violation, and juvenile cases starting April 19, 2022. Filings will also continue to be accepted in person and by mail.

The Order states that after a reasonable period of use in Regions 7 and 8, the program will be evaluated for further expansion into other areas of the state.

The revised AO (issued April 1, 2022) can be found here:

https://www.courts.maine.gov/adminorders/jb-21-06.pdf

More information and a link to the Opt-In form for attorneys is available on the judicial branch website:

https://www.courts.maine.gov/courts/sharefile/index.html

The pilot program using the Citrix ShareFile platform for attorneys will soon be expanded be expanded for criminal, civil violation, and juvenile case filings in York County district courts in Biddeford, Springvale, and York beginning February 11, 2022.

The Judicial Branch plans to continue to evaluate the Pilot for possible expansion to other courts in the state in the coming months.

More information about this expansion can be found on the Maine Judicial Branch’s website

https://www.courts.maine.gov/news/article.html?id=6708930

More information on the Pilot and a link to the Opt-In form for attorneys is available on the Judicial Branch website’s York County ShareFile Pilot page at: https://www.courts.maine.gov/courts/sharefile/index.html.

New AO Issued

On January 6, 2022, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued Administrative Order JB-21-06 announcing the scope and process for a pilot program. Beginning on January 18, 2022, attorneys in criminal and juvenile cases may submit filings to the court via a dedicated email address using the Citrix ShareFile platform.

More about the ShareFile pilot can be found on the Maine Judicial Branch website at https://www.courts.maine.gov/courts/sharefile/index.html

AO JB-21-06 Can be found on the Maine Judicial Branch website at

https://www.courts.maine.gov/adminorders/index.html

Columnist Bill Nemitz on Court Record Privacy

“But the moment someone crosses the courthouse threshold and takes legal action against the state of Maine – also known as you and me – that right to privacy should evaporate like a drop of water on a hot woodstove. If you’re going to sue the rest of us while claiming some God-given right to prolong the pandemic, we damn well have a right to know who you are.”

Read his November 14, 2021 column Fighting Vaccination in a Court with no Names from the Portland Press Herald at this link:

https://www.pressherald.com/2021/11/14/bill-nemitz-fighting-vaccination-in-a-court-with-no-names/

Read more about the case in a post from Friday November 12, 2021 below.

Once you protect the names of the people filing a lawsuit, our open court system suddenly becomes opaque, if not altogether invisible?

On November 10, 2021, Portland, Lewiston, Augusta and Waterville Newspapers, along with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (a  legal advocacy group that fights for the rights of journalists), filed a motion in the United States District Court for the District of Maine seeking to overturn a September 2021 order issued by Chief Judge Jon Levy, which allowed the plaintiffs in the case against the State of Maine to proceed “pseudonymously”.

The newspapers assert that the plaintiffs’ anonymity violates the Constitution because it denies the media and the public access to basic information that is guaranteed under the First Amendment.  See Portland Press Herald Article from November 11, 2021:

https://www.pressherald.com/2021/11/10/maine-newspapers-fight-anonymous-testimony-in-lawsuit-challenging-vaccine-mandate/?rel=related

See also Bangor Daily News Articles from October 13, 2021 & October 29, 2021; and Portland Press Herald Article from September 20, 2021 discussing the background of the case in general:

Supreme Court won’t halt Janet Mills’ vaccine mandate as it takes effect

Federal judge refuses to halt Janet Mills’ COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers

https://www.pressherald.com/2021/09/20/federal-judge-will-decide-whether-health-care-workers-should-get-religious-exemption-to-covid-19-shot/

Related to the Maine courts’ transition to electronic court records, the Maine Rules of Appellate Procedure Rules 12B(c)-(d) were amended to provide consistency in public access to briefs and appendices filed in matters that are confidential, nonpublic, or filed under seal in the trial court pursuant to statute, administrative order, or rule.

The Amendments are identified in legislative format on the courts’ website at the link below:

https://www.courts.maine.gov/rules/amendments/2021_mr_05_appellate.pdf

Finding that there is no First Amendment Right to instantaneous access to newly filed civil complaints and applying the flexible standard of scrutiny to the content-neutral rules promulgated by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court “are designed to support and promote public access, while balancing privacy concerns and the court’s interests in orderly and efficient administration.” Those rules contain appropriate time, place, and manner restrictions ‘narrowly tailored to serve significant governmental interest’ and leave ‘open ample alternative channels for communication of the information.’ that do not offend the First Amendment.

For the reasons stated in a 41 page Order, federal district judge Nancy Torrensen granted the Maine Court System’s Motions to Dismiss and Denied the Media’s request for a preliminary injunction related to court record access.

The full Order may be read here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ERaBcA9dp2c1IRJsRfpCuIb5BS6lV98I/view?usp=sharing