FAQs for new eFiling courts in California
While some states plunge into electronic court filing uniformly across all of its county courts, California allows each county to decide if, how, and when its courts will make the transition. As of now, only 19 of California’s 58 counties permit eFiling in some or all case types, but new eFiling courts are coming. In […]
San Mateo County eFiling for Probate starts with case initiations
Hello San Mateo County! Many may remember an experimental eFiling endeavor several years ago when courts allowed documents to be eFiled. While that program was later rescinded, San Mateo County is now rejoining 18 other California court systems to permit electronic filing of legal documents. Small Claims began accepting digital documents last month, and the soft […]
To scan or not to scan: eFiling requirements for Illinois
By now, most legal professionals in Illinois are familiar with the eFiling requirements imposed by state courts. But do you really know the mechanics of eFiling? For example, do you know when scanned documents are allowed and when they’re not? How about electronic signatures – do those need to be scanned? The rules surrounding scanning […]
11 Illinois electronic court filing rejection reasons explained
As Illinois adopts a statewide eFiling system, they’ve also standardized a list of issues that might cause a court filing to be rejected and returned to the filer. Below is a full list of possible court filing rejection reasons listed in the eFileIL Trial Court Configuration Standards on IllinoisCourts.gov, with insights into what each reason […]
Santa Clara County eFiling for Civil cases is coming soon
Hello Santa Clara County! Legal professionals in Santa Clara County have already been electronically filing court documents in several case types over the last couple of years. Effective February 13, 2018, it will become mandatory to eFile documents for General Civil cases, as well. While some courts choose to introduce eFiling with a short permissive […]
Electronic signatures and eFiling in Illinois
As Illinois State Courts make the shift to electronic filing of virtually all civil court documents, many legal professionals have expressed concern about the signatures accompanying such documents. Prior to the electronic age, the law almost uniformly required original signatures to be filed with the court. So what has changed? How can signatures be assured […]
eFiling confidential documents in Illinois: what to know
Since the 2017 Illinois Supreme Court mandated electronic court filing in civil cases, the vision of “statewide online remote access system” is well on its way. And while these changes certainly add a level of convenience for lawyers, litigants, and courtside employees, many were left wondering how the new system could protect unwanted access to […]
Behind electronic signatures for eFiling in Indiana
In today’s world of digital documents and electronic court filing, a “wet” signature doesn’t mean what it used to. Now that physical practices are being replaced by electronic ones, an attorney’s physical signature on a legal document is only one of the three possible ways to authorize a file before it is eFiled with the […]
How to eServe in Illinois courts
On July 1, 2017, Illinois enacted a plethora of revisions to the Supreme Court Rules. Among them were sweeping revisions to the procedures for effecting service of pleadings and other case documents. As one of the state’s certified Electronic Filing Service Providers (EFSPs), we get a lot of questions about the new rules. Here are […]
Preparing for Illinois eFiling at your firm
Ready or not, eFiling on the statewide eFileIL system is about to be the only way to file legal documents in Illinois courts. That means several major circuit courts with a different eFiling system already in place—including Cook, Will, DuPage and Lake County—will be required to switch to eFileIL, a platform for which law firms […]
5 ways to stay updated on local court rules
When you’re focused on deadlines and case files, it can be hard to remember to look for court updates—and harder to find exactly where they might be. Here are some top ways to stay connected with what’s happening with local court rules, from social media to local paralegal association newsletters, and more. Need other quick […]
How to format documents for eFiling in Illinois courts
Welcome to the eFiling world, Illinois! Some of you have been filing documents electronically for years now, while others haven’t yet gotten the chance. Now that a statewide system has been established for all courts, we decided to gather up the most recent formatting rules for Illinois eFiling. Many of these will be similar to […]
11 most Googled questions about eFiling in Indiana
It’s been a year and a half since the first court began eFiling in Indiana, and ever since Hamilton County lead the way, the rest of the 91 counties have been following closely after. Here’s your up-to-date list of the Indiana counties where you can electronically file court documents. Still, there remain some lingering questions […]
Don’t write wrong: $10 million lawsuit decided over missing serial comma
Good grammar – following the rules for commas, punctuation, and sentence structure – is considered by many to be essential for effective writing. But in the age of informal writing via texting, social media, and email, does grammar really matter for quality legal writing anymore? Legally speaking, yes it does. In 2014, three Maine truck […]
eFiling and pagination: How to stay within the rules
Habits of a lifetime are hard to break. One such habit in the legal profession has been to paginate certain prefatory sections of court filings using Roman numerals. It’s what we’ve always done. Well, as with so many other long-term law office habits, the introduction of electronic court filing means that this is a habit that you’re […]
New eFiling formatting rules in California: What you need to know
Following a series of recently announced changes to the California Rules of Court you may soon need to change how you’re preparing documents to adhere to new eFiling formatting rules. In October, the Judicial Council of California published several rule changes and amendments to come into effect on January 1, 2017. Several relate to the […]