Jan 8, 2025 By Mike Jones 3 min read

A state appellate court has rejected a petition filed by Washington County Prothonotary Laura Hough asking it to halt portions of the county’s new electronic filing process that allows courthouse staff outside of her office to affix her seal on civil matters upon filing.

The Commonwealth Court dismissed Hough’s petition for review Friday after she and her office’s solicitor, Sean Logue, filed the challenge June 20 over concerns that it allowed others to electronically stamp civil documents when filing through the prothonotary.

The new e-filing process, which President Judge Gary Gilman implemented in two separate administrative orders on May 3, went into effect in early June and was designed to simplify the filing process in many situations.

However, the petition for review questioned the ability of the court administrator and court staff to add Hough’s official stamp when filing electronically through her office. The petition named Washington County Court Administrator Patrick Grimm specifically in its filing and asked the appellate court to halt the process as currently laid out in Gilman’s orders.

In his filing objecting to the petition, Grimm told the appellate court that Hough “failed to state a claim and did not set forth a viable cause of action” on what would happen if the electronic filing process was halted. In the memorandum opinion written by Judge Stacy Wallace, the court agreed and sustained Grimm’s preliminary objections claiming a defect in Hough’s filing because she “did not plead a cause of action” in her petition, prompting Commonwealth Court to dismiss the matter.

“Indeed, while the Petition seeks to obtain a temporary and permanent injunction, in order for a complaining party to obtain a temporary or permanent injunction, that party must prove a clear right to relief,” the opinion states. “Here, Prothonotary did not plead an underlying cause of action. Consequently, Prothonotary cannot prevail on the merits of a nonexistent underlying action.”

After filing the petition for review in June, Logue said Hough was not opposed to e-filing but in how it was implemented. Logue said Tuesday they were “very disappointed” that the Commonwealth Court decided not to take up the issue, and that they were evaluating their options.

“As such, in essence, they are saying people who are not connected to the prothonotary may use the prothonotary’s stamp on official documents, and we think that’s ludicrous,” Logue said. “People who work for the court administration are filing (with) stamps, and to me that’s insane.”

The e-filing process continued while the Commonwealth Court reviewed the petition.