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What Is ECR?

What Is ECR?

The Electronic Court Record

ECR refers to the electronic court record in King County Superior Court. The electronic record is the official court record. ECR is used every day as a vital part of the Clerk and court's way of doing business. In most cases, it is the only record being kept and is the record being used to conduct court business; the paper copy is not normally retained.

The ECR Program is the program by which King County transitioned to an electronic court record. The ECR Program progressed over ten years and resulted in a comprehensive process for creating, receiving, and maintaining electronic records as the official records of King County Superior Court.  It changed the basic way the clerk's office works with documents and the way the court and public gains access to the court record.
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The efforts of judges, clerks, attorneys, and other members of the legal community who developed the ECR Program created changes within the local legal system that enabled a paradigm shift at the Clerk's Office and resulted in tangible, measurable benefits for all stakeholders.

Without their support, the implementation of ECR would not have been possible.

Vision and groundwork, in combination with the success of an early pilot scanning project, led to the development of the ECR Master Plan, which provided the ECR Program with an excellent framework. Following the creation of the Master Plan, the ECR Program developed in phases.  The Core ECR phase provided the technological and procedural foundation upon which the rest of the ECR Program was built.  During the Connectivity phase, the Court and Law, Safety, and Justice agencies within the King County Wide Area Network (WAN) gained access to the electronic record via the ECR Viewer.  The public gained access to certain electronic records during the Connectivity phase via ECR Online.  The final official phase of the Program brought eFiling, with an array of optional services including filing ex Parte via the Clerk and electronic Working Papers.

Thanks to the ECR Program, access to superior court records is more secure and reliable. Multiple users access records at the same time. Judges need not wait for files; they have access to records on demand in their courtrooms and on the bench.  Thousands of trips to the Clerk's Office to retrieve files have not been necessary, and users are now able to locate information in minutes rather than hours or days.

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