UPE and Sacramento Superior Court met and conferred on October 30, 2023, over the negative impact of the E-Court system on the assignment of work for Probate Investigators. In response to feedback from UPE members, UPE called for a meeting with the Court to address the negative impact of E-Court. In particular, UPE highlighted that E-Court does not assign all case types; it malfunctions and will over-assign work to one Investigator instead of rotating; does not know when cases are transferred, resulting in E-Court case notices going to the wrong Investigator; and assigned cases not appearing in the E-Court work queue. As a result of these failings, Investigators are left overwhelmed, confused, and stressed trying to keep track of their work and ensure it is being fairly and accurately assigned.
UPE proposed that the Court cease the use of E-Court to assign cases for Probate Investigators and return to a manual process. UPE is pleased to report that, as a result of UPE’s advocacy, the Court will be ending the use of E-Court for case assignment! The Court will continue to use E-Court for case tracking, but assignments will be made and assigned in E-Court using the method utilized prior to E-Court. There will be a delay while the Court tests out changes to E-Court to ensure a smooth transition. UPE will update members when more information is available about the timeline.
Thank you to Leava Ong, Lindsay Wainscott and Robin Pearl for their participation and advocacy.