What Happens When e-File Reporting Stops Taking All Day
Organization Profile
- Location: State of Vernmont
- Population: ~644,000
- Tyler Client Since: 2017
- Tyler Products Used: Enterprise Justice, eFile & Serve, eFile Analytics
Court electronic filing operations weren’t failing at the Vermont Judiciary, but resources were strained.
A lean, nine-person review team carried the statewide responsibility of processing 74% of all filings. Although they kept the system moving, they didn’t have the timely visibility into filing volume or emerging issues.
Relying on spreadsheet merges and pivot tables, Kristie Landon, programs manager for trial court operations, combed through e-filing data by hand to report on filing activities to leadership, the media, or the Supreme Court. This process created 6-7 hours of work each month and often clashed with other day-to-day priorities.
That left little room to proactively manage operations. Questions about rising rejection rates, high-volume dockets, or uneven queue times were often answered after bottlenecks had already formed.
More time was spent assembling data rather than applying it, reacting to backlogs rather than anticipating them, and guessing where help was needed rather than staffing based on real patterns.
When the judiciary modernized its data practices and made reporting accessible in real time, the balance shifted.
Reducing e-File Reporting From 7 Hours to 7 Minutes
By introducing e-File Analytics, the Vermont Judiciary removed the reporting burden that consumed attention. “What used to take me 6-7 hours in Excel spreadsheets, those same reports now take me 7 minutes in eFile Analytics,” Landon said.
That reclaimed time was about more than speed and efficiency. It created opportunities for operational improvement; it changed where effort was spent. Landon and her team now have the breathing room to make data-informed decisions.
With e-filing data insights, the same people with the same workload are now operating more deliberately. The Vermont Judiciary has:
- Enabled proactive decision-making. With timely data, issues are discovered early enough to prevent them from escalating. Queue wait-time data exposed where filing demand spiked by case type or time of the month. This signaled leadership to cross-train staff on other docket codes and adjust staffing plans before delays became visible to filers. By proactively addressing bottlenecks, the judiciary improved clearance times and reduced staff stress.
- Standardized filings, reducing rejection rates. Vermont’s unified statewide system enabled apples-to-apples comparison across case types, making it more feasible to enforce standards and manage filings uniformly. Instead of guessing why rejection rates increased month over month, analytics revealed exactly where and why issues occurred. The review team replaced unnecessary rejections with targeted 10-minute training interventions for simple event code changes. This quick fix added consistency across filers while reducing processing time and staff rework.
- Improved agility with media requests, building trust and transparency. When the media inquires about how quickly filings would appear on the public portal, Landon uses historical trends and performance data to provide accurate expectations. “We can now answer immediately with data-backed confidence,” she said. “That responsiveness has positioned us as one of the most reliable agencies in the state for time-sensitive requests.”
- Enhanced data transparency. At an organizational level, the Court Administrator’s Office can now inform leadership with key operational metrics through accurate, timely, and easily interpretable information. This improved transparency ensures leadership has trustworthy data to support decision-making and strategic planning.
From Data to Decisions, Managing Court Operations at Scale
For a small team supporting highly scaled operations, these practical improvements were recognized with a 2026 Tyler Excellence Award. Their success reflects a commitment to continuous improvement. They demonstrate that when courts stop spending time producing workload reports, they can start managing operations with more clarity and make data-informed decisions.
“When reporting stopped consuming the day, we could finally focus on managing the work. eFile Analytics enables real, measurable improvement. It has changed how we operate, and we’re just getting started,” said Landon.