Enhancement to the eFiling System to Support Confidential Documents in Proceedings, AUC November 13, 2019 Announcement

Link to Announcement Summarized

Announcement – Confidentiality – AUC Rule 001

The AUC announced a major enhancement to the eFiling System to support the exchange of confidential documents between proceeding participants. It expects to release the enhancement in the first quarter of 2020, which will negate the need for the manual exchange of USB flash drives and provide an efficient and secure way to share confidential documents with proceeding participants approved by the disclosing party.

The key enhancements include the ability to:

• submit confidential application or file documents that remain on the confidential record;

• designate a confidential administrator(s) in your organization that will be responsible for determining which individuals or representatives should have access to your confidential documents for each confidential proceeding;

• submit a public motion for confidentiality filing as well as the ability to upload associated confidential motion documents by the disclosing party;

• allow the AUC to issue a public confidentiality ruling on one or more motions for confidentiality that specifies what information is to remain confidential and identify any parties to be excluded from submitting a confidentiality undertaking;

• allow proceeding participants to submit a confidentiality undertaking for each individual requiring access to the confidential record with notification to the disclosing party’s confidential administrator to grant or deny access to the confidential record for the individual;

• search for confidential documents for approved users;

• submit statutory declarations that revoke access to the confidential record;

• extend access to the confidential material to approved users on any related compliance, costs or review and variance proceedings; and

• allow the AUC to issue both a public version and a confidential version of the decision.

In conjunction with the release, some minor amendments to AUC Rule 001: Rules of Practice will be made to update procedures that reflect the new capabilities on the eFiling System.