E-Filing - some thoughts about uniformity

The promise of E-filing is vast. But there are traps for the unwary, especially as E-filing proliferates and more courts adopt e-filing. It would be nice if every jurisdiction had the same rules for E-filing, but they don't. So don't assume that they do (i.e. don't assume that every court will consider a document filed before midnight as filed on that day; they might have an earlier time cutoff). LexisNexis has a list of courts that use e-filing (that's just their list of state courts and it may not be complete; here is a list of federal courts that support E-filing).

They also have proposed Model Rules for E-filing (476k PDF) which is clearly something that courts should start considering adopting. I don't mean the LexisNexis rules, but some sort of model rules. Obviously the federal courts (as a branch of the federal government, which used to be good at deploying things that would apply to the country as a whole) would be a good place to start.

Update: Scrivener's Error has some thoughts on this topic.

Comments

[Russ]

We have e-filing here in Colorado (at least at the district court level), via Justicelink/Courtlink. Its actually not all that bad, although its much more convenient to use if you have absolutely no physical documents (ie, you upload your Word or Word Perfect file to their server and they convert it for you - no physical attachments that you would need to manually convert to a PDF).

Boulder County District Court (20th Judicial District) actually requires e-filing now (unless you are pro se).

The biggest downside to e-filing (for those of you who have not used Justicelink or anything similar) is that to be safe (I feel that) you need to leave yourself at least enough time to physically get the pleading to the Court manually, because the system invariably does not work or has problems when its 11pm and you need to get the pleading filed at the last minute.

But its clearly the wave of the future with the Courts, and one where some guidance would be much appreciated. Here are Colorado's interim rules as of earlier this year (Justicelink has been around Colorado since at least 2000/2001). SOrry that the file is opened up as a Word file, rather than a standard web page.

RussLegal Memo-Random

[Sophorist]

The W.D. of Mo. was actually one of the pilot (or guinea pig) programs for electronic filing. I've been doing it for a few years now and it's not bad. We just convert our pleadings to .pdf and upload them for filing. An email notice is sent to everyone in the case with a link to the pleading. Russ is right about uploading scanned copies of physical documents, though. It can be a pain. If the documents are voluminous, we file a notice of exhibit attachment and mail or deliver the documents to the clerk's office.

One of the best features is being able to log onto the system, pull up a docket sheet, and click a link to view or print any pleading that has been filed in the case.

[Carolyn Elefant]

Thanks for the link to LEXIS' proposed model rules. What a clever marketing tool - the rules give state courts an added reason to select LEXIS/NEXIS as their efiling providers.From what I can tell, the state courts, through use of the LEXIS system, are doing nothing more extensive or unique than the ECF/PACER system that has been in use in some federal courts for at least two years now.LEXIS is going to make an absolute killing off setting up the same efiling system for the states. And LEXIS is going to obtain the same kind of monopoly access to court filings that West obtained back in the 1800's when it became the official reporter for court decisions. Scary.