The scanning process begins by determining whether or not a document is a priority document. Priority documents are designated by discussion with the court and other customers. This sorting process begins at the file counter.

The file counter staff sort the documents by case type and document type, and often by year. The Document Prep staff then further sort and merge the priority documents into case number order. Non-priority documents are sorted by case type, document type and year, but are not put in case number order. Staff then puts the documents into batches of approximately 50 documents. All documents, both priority and non-priority, receive individual barcode sheets that are scanned along with the documents. The Priority documents are routed to docketing and bar code sheets are generated from iCIS for each document as it is docketed. Non-priority documents are not routed through docketing but go directly to document processing staff for generation of express barcodes. Staff use a special software program that is designed to produce these "express barcodes" very quickly.

The Document prep staff then prepares the documents for scanning. They also check to ensure file stamps are legible and complete, remove staples, and replace tabbed pages with material that can be scanned. In 2006, a monthly average of 200,544 documents (721,247 pages) were processed by document prep staff.

The next step is scanning. Scanning staff begin by opening the Kofax Ascent Capture program, which is where electronic images of the scanned documents are captured. Staff enter the information about the batches into a database; this database includes information such as type of processing and type of document, priority level, name of batch, and number of documents and pages. Once the documents are scanned, the batch is reviewed for quality control – checking to ensure that file stamps are legible, and checking each page to ensure that each document scanned is clear and legible. After documents are scanned and reviewed for quality control, they are boxed and forwarded to the Fileroom where they will be held pending the completion of all QC and auditing steps. Following that, they will be destroyed.

The scanned images are automatically passed from Ascent Capture program to the OnBase Program Repository. OnBase is the software program that is designed to manage the processing and retrieval of the office’s electronic documents. The last step in the scanning process is to check for the batches in OnBase to ensure that all documents have successfully passed from Ascent Capture into the OnBase repository.