What is Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and how does it work?
Optical Character Recognition is vital for legal documents, enabling quick and easy search and more flexible assessment of files.
What to do when the statute and rule are different?
Anytime there are two governing bodies declaring different rules, things can get complicated. California recently updated its statute to state that documents submitted between 12:00 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. are to be considered filed on that same business day. While this increased option for filers was welcomed by many, the less than comprehensive communication about […]
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 While that program was later rescinded, San Mateo County is now rejoining 18 other California court systems to permit electronic filing of legal documents.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 […]
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 […]
What legal professionals need to know about eFiling
Has electronic court filing begun in your county yet? Federal Courts have long since mandated eFiling and state courts have slowly joined the march toward digital progress. Some states, like Indiana and Illinois, have implemented a statewide system for eFiling, while others, like California, are leaving it up to the individual counties to gradually choose their own approach. […]
Tips for implementing new technology at your law firm
Despite the benefits of a more tech-savvy firm, not everyone in the office may be gung-ho to learn the necessary skills and make the various changes. A large law firm may ask the IT staff to champion the conversion to the new technology, but at a smaller law firm, it may be an office administrator […]
The benefits of eService: go beyond email
California court rules define eService as “service of a document, on a party or other person, by electronic transmission or electronic notification.” Pretty straightforward: the other parties receive digital documents rather than physical ones. Most states and counties that have implemented electronic court filing for legal documents, like Illinois, Indiana, and Texas, also have rules […]
Orange County eFiling for Family Law cases coming soon
Hello Orange County! It’s been more than six years since courts in Orange County, California first began accepting electronically filed documents. Civil Limited and Unlimited and Probate case types have been benefitting from eFiling for several years now. Starting December 4, 2017, Family Law filers will finally get to join the club. [textblock style=”1″]Download the […]
LA reveals top eFiling rejection reasons for probate
Congratulations, LA eFilers! You made it to the 90-day mark of filing documents electronically with the Probate courts in Los Angeles County. During these last few months, we know that there have probably been growing pains, as electronic filing requirements changed the way you created documents and filed them with the court. Now, administrators at […]
7 ways eFiling benefits your law firm (and boosts your success)
As of the end of 2016, all 50 states have implemented or announced plans to implement electronic filing systems for their courthouses. While the final realities of this change will take a few more years to reach all the county courts across the country, eFiling is a major move towards a more improved system for […]
eFiling terms legal professionals should know [slideshow]
So you’re getting ready to electronically file court documents? Do you have the vocabulary you need to succeed? Check out the top eFiling terms that all legal professionals need to know. eFiling tech terms every legal professional should know, originally posted on Slideshare. What are some other new things you’ve learned since technology has begun to take on […]
11 most Googled questions about eFiling in California
Summer 2017 is going to be a big season for eFiling in California courts. This week, Los Angeles County, the largest court system in the world, mandated eFiling for all probate cases. At the beginning of August, LA will begin permitting eFiling in family law cases, to be mandated soon afterward. And in July, both […]
Do I need to submit a courtesy copy with my eFiling? LA and beyond
Los Angeles, the largest court system in the world, is the most recent California court to have enabled eFiling for one of its case types. As of May 1, 2017, eFiling will be allowed in probate cases–required starting June 5, 2017—and many other case types will follow in the coming months. For an industry that […]
7 myths and misconceptions about the PDF
In the legal industry, and just about everywhere else, the Portable Document Format (PDF) is the gold standard of file formats, used globally to carry the permanence of a paper document into the digital space. Developed in 1992 by Adobe, the goal was to make the PDF a secure digital document that removed the need […]
Preparing for eFiling and eService: essential office tech
eFiling and eService are rapidly replacing the old way of doing things in local courts across the U.S. In Texas, for instance, almost every one of the state’s 260 local courts will soon require electronic filing (and therefore also eService) and in California, more and more courts are moving online every month. To ensure that […]