For clerks of court
Electronic court filing we build ourselves
CottFile moves filings from an attorney's browser into your clerk's review queue and on into the case file — one system, built by us, connected to Verdict.
CottFile is Cott Systems’ electronic court filing system, built for Louisiana parish courts and connected to Verdict. Attorneys and the public submit filings; your clerks work them in a review queue; accepted filings land in the case file.
We build it. That is the part worth saying plainly, because it used to be otherwise — the eFiling behind our court products came from an outside vendor, and it does not any more.
For attorneys and the public
Filings go in from any browser, on a desktop, tablet or phone, for both civil and criminal matters. Every submission can be followed from filing through acceptance, with notifications as its status changes, so nobody has to call the clerk’s office to ask whether something arrived.
One account covers every connected parish court. An attorney practicing across several parishes files from the same place each time.
For the clerk’s office
Your staff work a queue: accept, reject or reassign each submission, with judicial review and court administration alongside it. Rejections carry a reason back to the filer, so a correction comes back rather than a phone call.
Court setup is yours to configure — case types, fee schedules, queues and routing rules — rather than something you file a request with us to change.
Working with documents
PDF handling is built in. Filings can be split, combined, stamped and redacted inside the system, so a clerk is not moving documents out to a desktop application and back in order to prepare them for the record.
Guides for every role
There are step-by-step guides for filing, for reviewing, and for configuring a court — one each for filers, clerks and administrators.
cottfile.com has the guides and the filing portal itself.
Before you buy
Questions county offices ask
Is this a third-party product with your name on it?
No. CottFile is built by Cott Systems. The eFiling on our court pages used to come from an outside vendor; it does not any more. That matters practically rather than just commercially — the filing queue and the case file are one system instead of two that have to be kept in step, so there is no integration between them to break, and one company answers the phone when something goes wrong.
What can attorneys and the public actually do?
Submit civil and criminal filings from any browser — desktop, tablet or phone — then follow each submission from filing through acceptance with instant notifications. One account files across every connected Louisiana parish court, so an attorney practicing in several parishes does not keep a separate login for each.
What does the clerk's side look like?
A review queue. Your staff accept, reject or reassign each submission, with judicial review and court administration in the same place. Court setup — case types, fee schedules, queues and routing rules — is configured by your administrators rather than by us.
Do we need separate software to work with the documents?
No. PDF tools are built in, so filings can be split, combined, stamped and redacted without leaving the system or moving a document to a desktop application and back.
Is there training material for our staff?
Yes — there are step-by-step guides for each role: one for filers, one for clerks working the queue, and one for administrators configuring the court. They are on cottfile.com.