Electronic automated court document filing system

A system for marking and filing documents comprises a number of document marking sites each having at least one means 59 for marking a document with a coded message (Figure 3), representative of the information on the page, affixed to each page of the document, a number of filing sites 83 each having at least one computer 85, and a data centre 51 having a number of computers 65 coupled to both the filing sites and the document marking sites so that the time and date of filing of the marked documents can be recorded. Preferably each marked document is manually transferred to one of the filing sites and scanned into the filing site computer and the date and time of the filing of the document is transferred to the data centre. The data centre may also be provided with a means 68 to list current fees for various types of documents and to allow the filer of the document to pay fees, e.g. by credit card or debit card 94. The data centre may produce an unique docket number 95, which is printed on the document and stored in the filing site computer, and checksum information for each page formed from the characters and graphics on each page of the document. The data centre and filing site may also be able to print the document using a printer 92, 86 contained in a secure housing. The data centre computer may also contain a national name and address register 45 and a national company name and address register 97.