[ OCA CIRCULAR NO. 45-2013, March 18, 2013 ]

[ OCA CIRCULAR NO. 45-2013, March 18, 2013 ]

[ OCA CIRCULAR NO. 45-2013, March 18, 2013 ]

TO : All Concerned Judges and Personnel of the Regional Trial Courts and the Metropolitan Trial Courts of Quezon City.

SUBJECT: Guidelines on the Two-Week Mandatory Encoding Period for Quezon City Trial Courts (1-15 April 2013)

WHEREAS, the Quezon City trial courts have been developing the eCourts Program of the Supreme Court for trial courts, in relation to the EISP for the entire Philippine Judiciary;

WHEREAS, in preparation for the launch and pilot-testing of the Quezon City eCourts Program, the database has to be populated with the trial courts' case information;

WHEREAS, encoding progress has been slow due to the judges' and personnel's primordial task of attending to their respective court calendars;

WHEREAS, a final encoding period during which the trial courts will focus solely on data population of the system is thus necessary;

NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the foregoing premises, and to the intended ultimate benefit of the public who will have easier and better access to the Quezon City courts through the eCourts Project, it is hereby provided:

1. A two-week encoding period is hereby decreed from 15-30 April 2013 for all branches of the Regional Trial Court and the Metropolitan Trial Court of Quezon City, during which said courts shall undertake the completion of encoding of their respective branches' case information for all active cases in their dockets. Newly filed cases with no case incidents yet and cases submitted for decision but still undecided shall be included in the encoding.

The courts shall ensure the accuracy and reliability of the case information encoded.

2. For the encoding, the courts shall be guided by the data fields found in the system, as explained during the users training. Nevertheless, for purposes of the two-week encoding period, the courts may defer the encoding of exhibits presented.

3. The courts are enjoined to review and complete, when necessary, the data encoded by non-court personnel who were enlisted as encoders in 2012.

4. During the two-week encoding period, a team of technical assistants will be present at the Quezon City Hall of Justice to address any queries or requests for assistance. The team will be based at the Server Room on the Ground Floor of the Hall of Justice, beside Branch 84.

Substantive matters such as errors in fields or suggested revisions in the software shall be raised with any member of the Core Group constituted by the undersigned, composed of selected Branch Clerks of the Regional Trial Court and the Metropolitan Trial Court of Quezon City.

A list of the members of the Core Group and of the Technical Team shall be circulated among all Quezon City courts for direct access, prior to April 1, 2013.

5. Quezon City trial courts are authorized to suspend all court hearings from 15-30 April 2013, pursuant to this Order, except on urgent matters.

6. All Quezon City trial courts are required to submit to the undersigned, no later than 20 April 2013, a Certification jointly signed by the Presiding/Acting Judge and the Branch

Clerk/Officer in Charge of each court attesting to the number of cases completely encoded and the number still left unencoded by their branch.

For strict compliance.

18 March 2013

(SGD.) JOSE MIDAS P. MARQUEZ Court Administrator