For litigation-focused law firms, managing the constant flow of documents from Electronic Case Filing (ECF) systems can be a significant administrative burden. Court Drive offers an elegant solution by automatically capturing ECF notifications and routing them directly into your NetDocuments workspace. As a NetDocuments consultant, I’ve helped numerous firms implement this integration, and it consistently proves to be one of the most valuable workflow automations for litigation teams.
How the Integration Works
Court Drive monitors your firm’s ECF notifications and captures new case documents as they’re filed. Instead of requiring staff to manually download and file these documents, Court Drive can automatically email them directly into NetDocuments using folder-specific email addresses. This creates a seamless pipeline from the court’s filing system into your document management system.
Setting Up the Integration
The setup process is straightforward, but there’s one critical detail that administrators need to get right from the start.
Step 1: Create Your ECF Folder Structure
In your NetDocuments workspace (typically within a matter or case folder), create a dedicated folder for ECF documents. Many firms simply name this “ECF” or “Court Filings,” though you can adapt the naming convention to match your firm’s standards.
Step 2: Choose the Correct Email Address
Here’s where attention to detail matters. When you access the folder’s email settings in NetDocuments, you’ll see two email addresses listed for that folder.
Use the second email address—the one containing “NM” in the address.
It will look something like this: 4899-9757-2986NM@mail.vault.netdocuments.com
NetDocuments provides this helpful hint: “Send to [address]NM@mail.vault.netdocuments.com to store the attachments only in editable form.”
Why the NM Address Matters
This is crucial for your workflow. The NM email address tells NetDocuments to extract and store only the document attachments in their native, editable format. Without the “NM” designation, NetDocuments would store the entire email as well, which can clog up the folder.
Step 3: Add the Email Address to Court Drive
Once you’ve copied the NM email address from NetDocuments, log into your Court Drive account and add this address as the destination for your ECF notifications. Court Drive will then automatically forward new filings to this folder.
The Bottom Line
The Court Drive integration with NetDocuments eliminates manual data entry and ensures your ECF documents are immediately available in your document management system. By taking care to use the NM email address during setup, you’ll ensure those documents arrive in the most usable format possible—saving your team time and frustration every single day.
If you’re implementing this integration and have questions about NetDocuments configuration or want to optimize your ECF workflow, feel free to reach out. Getting these details right from the start makes all the difference in user adoption and long-term success.