[ OCA CIRCULAR NO. 52-2013, April 15, 2013 ]

[ OCA CIRCULAR NO. 52-2013, April 15, 2013 ]

[ OCA CIRCULAR NO. 52-2013, April 15, 2013 ]

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

SUBJECT: Extending the Mandatory Encoding Period for Quezon City Trial Courts (16-30 April 2013)

WHEREAS, the Quezon City trial courts have been chosen to pilot the eCourts Program of the Supreme Court for trial courts in relation to the Enterprise Information System Plan for the entire Philippine Judiciary;

WHEREAS, in preparation for the launch of the Quezon City eCourts Program, 1-15 April 2013 has been declared a mandatory encoding period for Quezon City trial courts;

WHEREAS, based on the statistics submitted to the Office of the Court Administrator, as of 12 April 2013, the Quezon City trial courts have only a 75% average rate of completion, with majority of the trial courts having encoded an incomplete or only the basic case incidents;

WHEREAS, the Executive Judges of the Quezon City trial courts have recommended the extension of the encoding period during which the trial courts will finish and complete the data population of the system preparatory to the trial run of the program in May 2013;

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, the following are hereby provided:

1. The two-week encoding period from 1-15 April 2013 is extended for a final two-week period from 16-30 April 2013 for all branches of the Regional Trial Court and the Metropolitan Trial Court of Quezon City. During this extension period, said courts shall complete the data encoding of their respective branches' case information for all active cases in their dockets, based on the Guidelines prescribed under OCA Circular No. 45- 2013-A dated 18 March 2013;

2. Quezon City trial courts are authorized to suspend all court hearings from 16-30 April 2013, pursuant to this Order, except on urgent matters. Should any of the courts proceed with their scheduled hearings during this period, they shall ensure that encoding will continue full time; and

3. No later than 3 May 2013, all Quezon City trial courts are required to submit to the undersigned 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.

15 April 2013

(SGD.) JOSE MIDAS P. MARQUEZ Court Administrator