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Audit of the Appeals Court

The audit, which examined the period of September 1, 2018 through October 31, 2019, shows the Court's electronic filing system has reduced the time it takes to process cases. The audit also shows the Court is improving its processes related to the collection and reconciliation of fees.

Organization: Office of the State Auditor
Date published: November 2, 2020

Executive Summary

In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of the Appeals Court for the period September 1, 2018 through October 31, 2019. In this performance audit, we examined the Appeals Court’s compliance with Section 4 of Chapter 262 of the General Laws and Rules 8a–8f of the Massachusetts Rules of Electronic Filing, as well as the efficiency of the electronic document filing system eFileMA. We also assessed the court’s fee collection.

Below is a summary of our findings and recommendations, with links to each page listed.

Finding 1
 

The Appeals Court did not collect and verify documentation to support its daily deposits.

Recommendations
 
  1. The Clerk’s Office and the Fiscal Office should develop a process to ensure that all supporting documentation is retained for reconciliation and that any discrepancies between the log sheets and the Fees Paid—Detail Report are formally documented.
  2. The Fiscal Office should confirm that all cases from the previous day have been processed before generating the Fees Paid—Detail Report.

 

A PDF copy of the audit of the Appeals Court is available here.

Table of Contents

Downloads

Audit of the Appeals Court (English, PDF 978.4 KB)

Contact

Phone

Main (617) 727-2075

Online

Auditor@sao.state.ma.us

Fax

(617) 727-3014

Address

Massachusetts State House
Room 230
Boston, MA 02133
Directions 

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