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Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Program

The Magistrates' Court of Victoria's Civil Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Program was introduced in late 1993. The facility enables authorised solicitors to electronically lodge civil complaints, enter judgment in default of a defence and issue Warrants to Seize Property and Summonses for Oral Examination.

The advantages of utilising the EDI system for both the Court and stakeholders are summarised below:

• Increase in available court resources as attendance at the Registry is not required;
• Elimination of a requirement for postage or a document exchange facility has resulted in a significant decrease in the risk of documents being delayed or misdirected;
• Decrease delay in the issue of Complaints, Orders, Warrants to Seize Property and Summonses for Oral Examination;
• Elimination of the need for payment by cheque or stamp duty;
• Decrease in paper-based transaction thereby facilitating less data entry and the reducing the risk of data entry errors; and,
• Increased efficiency for solicitors as complaints can be issued for any civil issuing Magistrates' Court across Victoria.

 

How EDI works

A solicitor enters the required details for a document into their office computer which is then transmitted electronically to the Court's 'Courtlink' system overnight. The following morning the solicitor will receive a message which contains confirmation of the data exchange. In the case of a Complaint, this will include a court case number and a date of filing. In the event that the exchange was unsuccessful for any reason, an error message will explain what was wrong with the data sent, or what other factor prevented the request from being processed. For example, a request for judgment in default of a defence may result in a message that the transaction could not be processed because a Notice of Defence has been filed. Similarly, an error message will also provide feedback to the solicitor if the information sent electronically did not include some required information.

Certain requests cannot be processed by EDI. If any order has been made by a Magistrate, an application for default judgment cannot be obtained electronically. This is to protect the integrity of the process and was a key consideration in the development of the system.

Once the solicitor receives confirmation of a successful transaction, the electronically held information is transferred by the solicitor's computer onto properly formatted documents, e.g. a Complaint or a Notice of Order Made. The printed complaint contains all the data entry information provided by the solicitor set out in accordance with the requirements of the Rules, including the allocated case number and date of filing, and it is valid for service. This process saves time and resources for the entering of data by court staff.

Court fees and transaction costs are electronically withdrawn from an account nominated by the solicitor using the service.

For further information on the EDI Program please contact the Court's EDI Service Team on (03) 9603 9380.

Information on the three service providers for the EDI service is available from their websites through the links on the right.