Court of Appeals of Georgia

Suite 501, 47 Trinity Avenue

Atlanta, Georgia 30334

December 1, 2009

Press Release

Chief Judge M. Yvette Miller of the Court of Appeals of Georgia announced today the Court has begun accepting electronically filed briefs from attorneys who represent litigants in cases before the Court of Appeals. The Court initiated a test of the electronic filing system (titled EFAST), a project of the Court and its vendor, Trivir, LLC, the first week of November.

The first electronically filed brief was submitted by Ms. Cindy Wang of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council on November 4, 2009. Since then, several other briefs have been filed by area attorneys including Jimmonique Rogers, GPDSC, Christopher McFadden, Decatur, and Penny Hannah, Attorney General's Office, during the application's test phase. So far the application has performed as anticipated.

Beginning today, Chief Judge Miller stated that all attorneys representing litigants in the Court of Appeals of Georgia who are members in good standing of the State Bar of Georgia and the bar of the Court of Appeals are eligible to register and submit electronic briefs.

During this initial phase, the Court will only accept electronic briefs (such as the appellant's brief, appellee's brief, appellant's reply brief, amicus briefs, and supplemental briefs). After this initial phase, the Court will expand the system to accept other electronic filings and to distribute electronic orders on these filings. Chief Judge Miller said that in the next phase, Requests to Argue and Motions such as Extensions to File Briefs will be eligible for filing with the Court and the Court will issue its orders on these documents to electronic filers by email. Litigants filing paper pleadings will continue to receive Court orders by U.S. postal service mail.

Chief Judge Miller is encouraging attorneys to try the system. She hopes that attorneys will find the new application easy to use and beneficial to their practice. Instructions for using the e-filing system and frequently asked questions and answers are posted on the Court of Appeals web page at: ____________________ .

For further information, please contact:

William L. Martin, III

Clerk and Court Administrator

Court of Appeals of Georgia

Photographic Attachments:

1. Image 2902.jpg. Attorney General Thurbert Baker registers on the EFAST system with Chief Judge M. Yvette Miller, Court of Appeals of Georgia and Representative Chuck Martin observing.

2. Image 2986a.jpg. Attorney Cindy Wang, Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, prepares to send the first brief to the Court of Appeals through the EFAST system with Judge Herbert E. Phipps, Court of Appeals of Georgia, John Ruggeri, Information Technology Director, Court of Appeals of Georgia and Attorney Jimmonique Rogers observing.

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