March 25, 2009 -- I use CourtsOnLine for a variety of things including checking the status of pending orders, obtaining copies of missing pleadings, and obtaining background information and documents for new matters (especially helpful when preparing the new business report when the attorney provides you very little information about the case). For all of these tasks, CourtsOnLine provides a very useful and convenient service.

But the primary reason I have used it in the last six to nine months is to prepare clerk's papers for the appeals into which many of our cases have now evolved. In the past, preparing a set of clerk's papers required assembling a set of pleadings from your file, and then taking them downstairs to the Clerk's Office to compare page numbers to ensure that you have numbered your set correctly in accordance with the Index of Clerk's Papers (it was a rare occurrence to be 100 percent accurate and usually took more than one trip).

Now, through CourtsOnLine, you can simply download the clerk's papers at your desk--either a complete numbered set if you are patient enough to wait for the Court to upload them, or individually, following the Index to Clerk's Papers and numbering them yourself--either a way, a somewhat onerous (i.e., several days to complete) task that has been made invaluably convenient (i.e., a few hours to a day to complete). It sounds a little odd, but I actually look forward to preparing clerk's papers sets now.

Robin M. Lindsey | Legal Assistant
to Jerry R. McNaul, Robert M. Sulkin,
Barbara H. Schuknecht and David R. East
McNaul Ebel Nawrot & Helgren PLLC
600 University St., Suite 2700 | Seattle, WA 98101-3143
D 206 389-9359 | F 206 624-5128 | O 206 467-1816
rlindsey@mcnaul.com

“We have been using the services of CourtsOnLine for the past several years…………I would not hesitate to recommend the CourtsOnLine system to others at any time. We have been highly satisfied since the induction of the system into our operation and rely on the information it provides for us daily.”
Kim Read, Production Manager, Ticor Title