RICO Suit Challenges Texas County’s E-Filing Requirement
A civil litigant has filed a lawsuit that claims a Texas county is violating the state and federal constitutions and the federal racketeering law by requiring civil litigants to use LexisNexis to file court documents.
The lawyer who filed the proposed class action, San Antonio solo practitioner Robert Mays Jr., says litigants without computers are denied access to the courts because of the e-filing requirement, Texas Lawyer reports. His client, Karen McPeters, says she has paid more than $440 to LexisNexis in fees that are due with every court filing.
Mays told the legal publication that electronic filing is optional in other counties, but 9th District Judge Frederick Edwards made electronic filing mandatory in a 2003 order. He allowed exceptions for the state and for Child Protective Services, for adoptions, and for divorces and annulments resolved in 90 days.
Edwards is named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Houston, along with the court clerk and LexisNexis parent company Reed Elsevier, the story says. The suit alleges constitutional violations of due process, equal protection, open courts and due course of law, along with violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Assistant Montgomery County Sara Forlano told Texas Lawyer: “We’re denying the allegations. We don’t think there is a problem.”
