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New probate Court rules

pdplot

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As of 1/1/20, the CT Probate Courts are requiring E-filing of documents other than the original Will. Exemptions are possible, and I applied for one but it has not been granted - as yet. I tried to be a good soldier and registered in the program but was unable to send the document that I had scanned into the computer. Apparently you have to combine many pages into one document and send off the bundle. i have no idea how to do it. I have been practicing probate law for 58 years and this e-filing is driving me out of business and preventing me from serving my clients. I've received several emails from other lawyers whose filings were also rejected, including one gal who had to send the documents to her son in Colorado who's an IT tech and who bundled the docs for her. This is outrageous and unfair. Question is what if anything can be done about it.
 

TR3driver

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I doubt this answers your question, but Adobe Acrobat makes it easy to combine many pages into a single PDF document. I use an older version (the last version that you only had to buy once), and there is literally a menu item for "Merge files into a Single PDF". It opens a screen where you pick files (which don't have to all be in the same directory), and put them in order, etc. I'm sure the latest version is similar. It also has built-in functions to convert scans to text and so on. Lots of other software packages available (any word processor should be able to do it), but Acrobat is the one I use.

Many scanners can also perform that function. I have a fairly cheap auto-feed unit from Brother that will auto feed something like 50 pages (scanning both sides), but you can keep adding more to the hopper as it scans (if you're fast enough) and the software will combine them all into one PDF file (if you tell it to).

I'm sure there is some mechanism to file an objection with the court, but it seems unlikely to me that you'll convince a judge he should do things "the old way" because you're too old to learn to use a computer.
 

Basil

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Scanning mulitple pages isn't too difficult. I have an Epson v550 scanner and when I use the software that came with it to scan a document to a pdf file, it asks me if I want to scan another page. If I answer yes, then it lets me scan another page and it adds it to the pdf file. When I am finally done scanning pages, I just select save instead of "add a page." I don't know what kind of scanner you have, but most scanners these days will allow you to scan multi-page documents.

Just do a search on YouTube for scanning multi-page documents using whatever scanner you have and you'll likely get detailed tutorials on how to do it. It seems daunting, but it's really not as hard as it might seem.

Basil
 

bobhustead

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I retired in 2005, prior to imposition of e-filing in Florida courts and mandatory PACER in Federal. Last year, I accepted an administrative case before a Board of Contract Appeals, which requires lawyers to e-file. With the help of Acrobat DC (or maybe Pro) ($15.00 per month), I learned fairly quickly.

Bob
 

bobhustead

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The program is "Acrobat Pro DC". Another thing you can do to combine is to save each document in Word and use the Copy/Paste features to make them one, then save the whole as a PDF.
Bob
 

NutmegCT

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Just a continuation of the trend. "Resistance is futile". Us poor ol' end users have to deal with multiple steps locally, to save time, money and labor for the organizations.

More and more I get emails from companies (utilities, shopping, credit cards, etc.) saying "We're helping you save paper! You'll no longer have to deal with paper statements. Just log in to our website with username and password, go to My Account, choose Statements, choose Current Statements, choose format (pdf, jpg, print, view on screen), choose Download - nothing to it!"

Doctors' offices now send emails saying "You have an important message! Click here to read your message."

You log in to the website with username and password, go to My Account, choose Messages, choose Messages about my health care, choose message(s) you want to read, choose format (pdf, jpg, print, view on screen).

Good grief. I know about a dozen people in their 80s and 90s volunteering at the air museum. They come to me asking "How do I do this?" I help them, but they can't remember all the steps, usernames, and passwords. Several are now ignoring the emails about messages and statements.

Overwhelmed.
 

DrEntropy

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Soon there will be no choice.

Adobe Acrobat will add scanned pages, we were "early adopters" of Adobe warez due t the nature of our business, back when the proggies were on about a dozen 3½" floppy disks. Now the web-based stuff. Not happy about it, either.
 
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pdplot

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I have Adobe Reader DC - whatever that is. I can assemble the files ro be combined but when I hit the Combine Files icon, a new page comes up telling me I'm almost finished and just need to down load Acrobat Pro for 14.99 a month or something else for 9.99 a month. A couple of paralegals took pity on me and one offered to walk me through the process by phone. At least two have told me I don't need to pay for anything else - what I have is enough. Tell that to the computer.
 

TR3driver

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"Acrobat Pro" is the program I mentioned before. "Reader" is the free version, lacks most or all of the composition features, but as you've discovered, has the menu entries and will offer to help you rent full Acrobat. Since I assume you're getting paid for this, there might be something to be said for adding the $15/month to your overhead expenses ...

You may have something else already installed that will combine files; but Acrobat Reader isn't it. There are lots of freeware programs out there that can combine files; the only one I've tried is PDFMate. https://www.pdfmate.com/pdf-converter-free.html
I've not tried combining files with it, but it seems to work well for converting PDF back to JPG (on a laptop that doesn't have Acrobat installed) so I assume the merge function would also work.

Of course, with freeware, there's always the off chance it's sending copies of your work to the Chinese or whoever. Not much of an issue for the old Triumph manuals I work with, but you might want to be more careful with your work.
 
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pdplot

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Well I downloaded Acrobat Pro DC. Something horrible came with it - Adobe Creative Cloud. Took literally almost 1 1/2 hours to load, tying up my computer. Wife suggested calling Adobe Tech support. Got Manish - heavy Indian accent. I needed wife to translate. After one hour 15 minutes, I got the program installed. Then I had to deinstall Creative Cloud. Icon still shows up so I don't know if its really gone and don't dare click it on. The acid test is tomorrow when I attempt to combine and upload. First I have to get rid of a file that somehow sneaked on to the files to be combined. I may have to delete the enire 6 files and start over. There is something that says deselect but the outlaw file still is on there. This whole thing has been and continues to be a nightmare. Also found out my request for an exemption was denied. I guess I'll have to hand them my head on a plate before they'll grant it. Why am I doing this? Still trying serve my old clients and keep busy.
 
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pdplot

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Managed to uninstall Creative Cloud, combine 5 files into one "binder" and uploaded thru TurboCourt to the Probate Court. So far so good. My brother thinks the whole thing is a ploy by Adobe and TurboCourt to sell more software. Friend's wife turns out to be a techie, very familiar with Adobe Acrobat. She offered to help. I may take her up on it.
 

TR3driver

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Does the court in fact require Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format? That doesn't seem right, since it's proprietary (and Adobe charges for it).

But I'm glad you got your submission done.
 

JPSmit

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This will just continue - where one person has a 'good idea' about tech and implements it 'all in' before the people or the infrastructure have the chance to catch up.

I personally love the idea of filing electronically - I clerk for our local presbytery and have to keep a binder of correspondence - to the point of having to print emails :rolleyes:

OTOH I also imagine what it is like for my mother to have to negotiate this all.

Case in point, last week the local cable company came to do some work. all the notifications done by text and phone call. Unfortunately my phone was on silent mode when the repair man arrived - he called twice and left. I one the other hand watched him pull into the driveway wait two minutes and leave - apparently this new tech thing precludes walking 8 feet and trying a doorbell. Needless to say a quick and direct phone call to my cable provider had someone back quickly - but, essentially a good idea (text and phone) completely overrides common sense (knocking on the door)
 

NutmegCT

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You are a lucky man to be able to make "a quick and direct phone call to my cable provider", or to just about any commercial service these days.

I call cable provider, power company, other utilities, town offices, health services, insurance companies ... I get automated and confusing phone tree menus. And now they're converting from hitting the menu choice number on the keypad, to *speaking* the menu choice number. And that usually results in an automated "I'm sorry - I didn't quite get that. Let's try again."

Younger folks I know just ignore these texts and emails on their smartphones, saying it's too confusing to figure out how to reply. If ignoring gets them into trouble, "daddy will take care of it for me". Old folks like me are slugging it out, but often end up asking another old guy with tech savvy to help them. (I tend to be that guy ...)

yeesh
 

waltesefalcon

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I guess I should be happy to live in a smaller town. I can call up town hall, post office, or the local tag office, get a real person, and that person will know who you are.
 

TR3driver

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And now they're converting from hitting the menu choice number on the keypad, to *speaking* the menu choice number. And that usually results in an automated "I'm sorry - I didn't quite get that. Let's try again."
Try using your keypad anyway. In spite of the prompt, many of those systems will still accept touch tones.
 
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pdplot

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Acrobat Pro is counter-intuitive and very hard to work with. I combined files and now can't find the "binders". Where did they go? Downloading the scanned images, they go directly to Acrobat. Then where do they go? Not back to images. I can't send them to the Court if I can't access them. This is terrible.
 

TR3driver

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Possibly DC works differently. On Acrobat 9 Pro Extended, as soon as you click the "Combine files" button in the dialog, it opens a "Save As" dialog. This is to save the combined file back to your hard drive. In that dialog, you choose both the directory to store the file in (default is the last directory where you stored a PDF), and the name to assign to the file. "Binder1.pdf" is the default name, but I strongly suggest you enter something more descriptive.

The appearance of the "Save As" dialog may vary, but this gives the general idea:

DUnTOrN.jpg


PS, I'm assuming that you are running Windoze.

Also, as a last resort to locate the "binder" file, use File Manager to navigate to the root of your hard drive (usually "C:\") and enter "binder" (without the quotes) in the search window. It may take several minutes to search the entire hard drive, but it should report all files with "binder" in the name.
 

JPSmit

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And now they're converting from hitting the menu choice number on the keypad, to *speaking* the menu choice number. And that usually results in an automated "I'm sorry - I didn't quite get that. Let's try again."

Still a favourite (language ahead)


and

 

HealeyRick

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I understand this is frustrating, but it's the way of the future just like learning to use computers to prepare briefs or do legal research through WestLaw rather than shuffling through the shelves of the law library. Think of all the money you'll save in paper and binding, etc., etc. What happens when your filing gets to the court. Do they print it out and put in a file? Hard for me to believe it's not being printed out for the court to read? Most lawyers would probably see electronic filing as a convenience and as most lawyers do, allow them to file documents at the very last second of the time allotted Pretty sure once you get through these initial pains, you'll adapt.
 
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