eFiling

Most of us in the legal industry are familiar with, or have at least heard of, “eFiling”, but have you heard of “eDelivery or eSubmit”? More importantly, do you know the difference?

Before we dive into what eDelivery/eSubmit is, it’s important to understand some of the history of how legal documents have been transmitted to U.S. courts throughout the years.

Prior to the digital age, court submissions were done in one of two ways: 1) legal documents were physically filed at the court and 2) they were sent via mail. Later, with the introduction of the fax machine in the 1990’s, fax filing was born. This changed the speed and ease of how documents could be transmitted.

With fax filing, a user would send their legal documents to a Fax Filing Service Provider who would review, prepare, and physically deliver the documents directly to the court or transmit the documents via facsimile to the court. All three of these traditional methods, each with their own advantages and disadvantages, are still being utilized today. The other two methods are eDelivery/eSubmit and eFile, which we will cover a little later.

Methods to File Documents with the Court:

People Still Use the Fax!?!

Believe it or not, there are a number of reasons why we are still using the fax machine in 2020. The fact is, we don’t know if it’s going away anytime soon due to user familiarity, ease of use, and legacy requirements. But it isn’t a method without flaws. What a user may not know is that once a fax transmission is received by the court, there is an entire manual workflow that takes place behind the scenes by court personnel and the timeline varies by each court.

For example, once the fax is received, a court clerk has to manually check the documents for accuracy and completeness, accept them or reject them due to errors, and then manually input them into the Court’s Case Management System (CCMS). This manual effort takes time, is subject to delays due to data entry or workflow bottlenecks and can result in human error. Thus, eFiling and eDelivery/eSubmit were introduced to solve these shortcomings.

What is Electronic Filing (eFiling)?

Electronic filing, or eFiling, is the method of electronically submitting your legal documents to the court via the internet. It typically requires the user to select an approved eFiling Service Provider (EFSP) to eFile their legal documents. Federal, state, and municipal courts have varying rules and regulations for eFiled documents. In many courts, electronic filing is mandatory and they do not allow in-person physical filing.

The biggest advantages of eFiling over traditional filing methods are that it is significantly faster to process, it reduces the amount of paper/manual processes and it’s much more cost-effective, i.e., a physical filing costs $65+ vs. $10 for an eFiling. Traditional filing meant that law firms needed to have a court runner to deliver multiple paper copies of legal documents and pleadings to the corresponding courts and parties.

eFiling is a truly integrated, end-to-end data exchange solution, connecting law firms and EFSPs directly to the courts. This diagram gives a high-level overview of how eFiling works:

Currently, 36 out of 58 counties in California have enabled some level of eFiling in their courts. Starting in 2008, many individual county courts in California such as Orange County, Contra Costa, and Sacramento had begun piloting programs for eFiling.

Because eFiling is a fully-integrated technology solution, the cost/investment, time and expertise needed is significant for the court. Some county courts also don’t have the case volume to justify such an investment. Bear in mind that fax submissions at this point are still actively being used, likely suppressing the need to modernize and go fully digital. Thus, for courts that don’t have the budget, expertise or infrastructure to support eFiling, a new solution called “eDelivery” was developed.

What is eDelivery?

More recently, some county courts that were not ready to make the full transition to eFiling have implemented an interim solution called “eDelivery”. Essentially, a platform – or web portal – allows parties the ability to submit electronic (PDF) versions of documents in place of the original directly to individual courts, similar to how fax filing works.

How Does it Work?

• Electronic (PDF) versions of documents will be submitted by the filing party through a web portal
• Upon receiving electronic document(s), a “Notice of Receipt of Documents” will be sent to the email address provided by the user
• This notice will contain the eDelivery submission number and will confirm that the Court has received the document(s)
• Provided the information supplied is complete and the fees paid are correct, the document(s) will be accepted by the Court and will be filed with the appropriate courthouse as if it had been filed in person
• Upon the acceptance of the document, an email notifying the submitting party of such, along with an electronic conformed copy, will be sent
• A notifying email will also be sent if the document is rejected

Considerations/Limitations

• Not a fully-integrated, automated solution
• Like fax filing, it still requires court clerk to manually input into court case management system
• Speed – receipt of filing is dependent on court
• Separate logins per court
• Fees may vary and a credit card is required for each filing
• Credit card is the only accepted method of payment

So far, four county courts in California are using an “eDelivery” solution: Imperial, Placer, San Joaquin, and Riverside. The latter two mentioned, San Joaquin and Riverside, have implemented their own instance of eDelivery portals. It is important to note, to avoid confusion, that although San Joaquin calls it “eFile” on their portal, that it is essentially an eDelivery portal. Riverside, on the other hand, refers to their portal as “eSubmit” so you might see these two terms used together or synonymously.

eFile vs. eDelivery/eSubmit

Although the terminology may sound similar, eFile vs. eDelivery/eSubmit are completely different processes as the latter is not a fully integrated solution and there is no data-exchange taking place. Essentially, eDelivery/eSubmit is really just a step above fax filing. With eDelivery/eSubmit, once the court receives the submission, the process is essentially the same as fax. A clerk will still need to review the documents, accept or reject, then manually input the information from the PDF into the court case management system.

To help compare some of the other differences between eFile vs. eDelivery/eSubmit, please refer to this chart below:

Which Courts in California offer eFiling or eDelivery/eSubmit?

Last update: June, 2023

Do you still have some questions on the difference between eFiling and eDelivery/eSubmit? Schedule a 15-minute call with a Rapid Legal Account Manager today – we’ll be happy to answer all your questions!

About Rapid Legal

For more than 25 years, Rapid Legal has helped to define and transform the legal support services industry with its vision and commitment to customers, the courts, and a party’s right to due process under the law.

Trusted by thousands of law firms, government agencies and companies, Rapid Legal leverages its deep industry and technology expertise, and a best-in-class legal services cloud management platform, LegalConnect®, for delivering premium legal support services including electronic filing of court documents (“eFiling”), physical court filings, and service of process.

eFiling rejections continue to plague legal professionals, potentially causing missed statutory deadlines or jeopardized cases.

There are several common reasons court eFiling rejections occur:

• Party’s name does not match the name listed on the initial lead document
• Incorrect case type has been selected
• Incorrect document type has been selected
• Wrong case number has been listed somewhere on the filing
• Wrong court location has been selected
• Issues with the filing itself, like uploading the wrong filing, submitting the filing in the wrong format, having the wrong name on the saved filing, improper scanning, or not including the required attachments.

So, it’s probably not surprising that eFiling rejection rates hover between 10-15%, depending on the court. That equates to 1 – 1.5 out of 10 court eFilings being rejected! What can be done?

To minimize eFiling rejections, we created two solutions – Expert Review and Concierge Service.

What is Expert Review?

Expert Review is a $35 service add-on for eFiling orders that customers can select to enhance court acceptance and to provide extra peace of mind. With this service, a Document Specialist team member will intercept your eFiling before it’s sent to the court and verify the following:

1) Accuracy Check: Verify the case number, parties, signatures, dates, court location, case type and document type.

2) Electronic Assembly: Verify the font style, searchable text, pagination, file size, layout and scan readability.

3) Jurisdictional Requirements: Confirm the filing contains locally required information such as bookmarks and mandated forms

What is Concierge Service?

Just like a hotel concierge that is hired to book a restaurant reservation or purchase show tickets on behalf of their customers – our concierge service operates very similarly. If you don’t have the time or you want to ensure your service is done correctly, you can hire us to perform our Concierge Service for you.

“…I reached out to them and used the concierge service where they have someone in their office look at the documents and say ‘this is ok, this you might want to change’, various issues like that. I forget what the fee was but we were more than happy to pay it rather than having things continually rejected…and they took care of it…it was wonderful…” – Rapid Legal Law Firm Customer

With Concierge Service, you simply upload your documents here and we handle your submission from start to finish:

1) File Assembly: Verify filings basics, physical or electronic assembly

2) Jurisdictional Requirements: Ensure filing contains locally required information such as bookmarks, and mandated forms

3) Service Execution: Complete the order entry in our portal for whatever service you select – electronic or physical filing, service of process, document retrieval, secretary of state filing plus more.

Best of all, our Concierge Service includes built-in Expert Review as part of the service for extra peace of mind.

So the next time you are concerned about court filing rejections, or what court requirements you need to meet (there are state and local county rules to keep in mind), or you’re simply running out of time – remember Rapid Legal has Expert Review and Concierge Service to help you! Let us put our expertise to work for you.

Ready to get started? Click here place your Concierge Service order.

(Please note: Concierge Service is only available to registered account owners. Click here to create an account.)

Want a quick demo first?

Schedule a 15-minute call with a Rapid Legal Account Manager today – we’ll be happy to walk you through how to submit your first Concierge Service or Expert Review request and answer your questions!

About Rapid Legal

For more than 25 years, Rapid Legal has helped to define and transform the legal support services industry with its vision and commitment to customers, the courts, and a party’s right to due process under the law.

Trusted by thousands of law firms, government agencies and companies, Rapid Legal leverages its deep industry and technology expertise, and a best-in-class legal services cloud management platform, LegalConnect®, for delivering premium legal support services including electronic filing of court documents (“eFiling”), physical court filings, and service of process.

Interesting, huh? We’ll talk more about Rapid Legal’s eFiling technology in future posts, but for now, let’s see what’s going in with eFiling in the Los Angeles County courts.

Los Angeles Superior Court

As it stands today, LASC only allows for permissive eFiling for Small Claims. Parties who want to eFile a Small Claims action can do it online through the Court’s website, except when:

• The claim is against a government agency
• The claim involves an attorney-client fee dispute
• The claimant is requesting a waiver of Court fees and costs
• The claimant is a minor, a legally incompetent person, or a person for whom a conservator has been appointed

So maybe you already knew this and you’re asking when eFiling is going to be instituted for other case types at Los Angeles Superior Court? We’ll here’s what we know…

In 2013, LASC appointed a new CEO, Sherri Carter, known for her achievements in technological innovation. Last year, the court hired the Chief Information Officer, Snorri Ogata, from Orange County Superior Court to serve as their CIO.  Our guess? LASC is making these types of moves because they’re getting serious about expanding electronic filing. As the largest court system in the nation, LASC’s eFiling expansion will be quite significant and will likely take at least 3-4 years, if not longer, to fully implement.

In our next post in this 3 part series, we’ll be discussing eFiling with San Francisco county courts.

Here at Rapid Legal, we often get asked which courts are moving to eFiling and when. To start, eFiling means to electronically file your legal documents over the Internet, typically through a court-approved Electronic Filing Service Provider. And while it’s nothing new on the Federal level, for California state courts, it’s a different story, but we can cover that topic another time. To address the original question in this post, “What CA courts are moving to eFiling and when?” we’ve created a 3 part series that shares eFiling developments in the Sunshine State. Here we discuss Orange County Court eFiling and Los Angeles County eFiling.

Please note: This information is current as of January 2015. While we’ve made every attempt to verify its accuracy, you should always consult CCP, local court rules and/or CA Rules of Court. Also, this is only information, not legal advice.

Orange County Superior Court

January 1, 2013: OCSC mandates that all documents filed in limited, unlimited and complex civil actions must be filed electronically pursuant to CCP Sec. 1010.6 and OCSC Rule 352. Two caveats exist, however; self-represented litigants are exempt from the eFiling mandate, but are strongly encouraged to eFile, and parties facing undue hardship may apply for an exemption from eFiling in accordance with rule 2.253.

Additionally, California Rules of Court, rule 2.251 states that a party by electronically filing any document with the court thereby agrees to accept electronic service.

September 3, 2013: OCSC mandates that all documents (exceptions are listed below) for Probate and Mental Health must be electronically filed pursuant to section 1010.6 of the Code of Civil Procedure , rule 2.253 (b)(2) of the California Rules of Court , and Local Rule 601.01.

Along with these mandates, filers must use one of the court-approved Electronic Filing Service Providers (EFSPs). Shameless plug: Rapid Legal is an EFSP. Need to eFile some documents? Give our team a call at 800.366.5445!

Take note, the following original documents may not be filed electronically:

Civil Cases:

• Bench Warrants
• Subpoenaed documents
• Labor Commissioner deposit of cash or check
• Bonds
• Undertakings

Probate/Mental Health Cases:

• Affidavit re: Real Property of Small Value
• Bonds
• Financial Documents submitted by Private Professional Conservator
• Letters (probate, guardianship, conservatorship)
• Subpoenaed documents
• Undertakings
• Will/Codicils – originals for filing or safekeeping

In a proceeding that requires the filing of any original documents, an electronic filer may file an electronic copy of a document if the original document is then filed with the court within 10 calendar days. (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 2.252(e))

We know this is a lot of information. Orange County Superior Court does a great job answering many of the pressing questions you might have. Check out their FAQs here.

Curious about how Orange County eFiling works? To become an approved Electronic Filing Service Provider with OCSC, we had to first determine a way to connect with the court’s Electronic Filing Manager (EFM). Some attorney services who are also EFSPs chose to use a third party application built by someone else, at Rapid Legal, we chose to build our own eFiling portal to connect to the court’s EFM. As a result, our court-integrated proprietary technology allows us to process legal documents quickly and efficiently. Check out the illustration below.

Interesting, huh? We’ll talk more about Rapid Legal’s eFiling technology in future posts, but for now, let’s see what’s going in with eFiling in the Los Angeles County courts.

Los Angeles Superior Court

As it stands today, LASC only allows for permissive eFiling for Small Claims. Parties who want to eFile a Small Claims action can do it online through the Court’s website, except when:

• The claim is against a government agency
• The claim involves an attorney-client fee dispute
• The claimant is requesting a waiver of Court fees and costs
• The claimant is a minor, a legally incompetent person, or a person for whom a conservator has been appointed

So maybe you already knew this and you’re asking when eFiling is going to be instituted for other case types at Los Angeles Superior Court? We’ll here’s what we know…

In 2013, LASC appointed a new CEO, Sherri Carter, known for her achievements in technological innovation. Last year, the court hired the Chief Information Officer, Snorri Ogata, from Orange County Superior Court to serve as their CIO.  Our guess? LASC is making these types of moves because they’re getting serious about expanding electronic filing. As the largest court system in the nation, LASC’s eFiling expansion will be quite significant and will likely take at least 3-4 years, if not longer, to fully implement.

In our next post in this 3 part series, we’ll be discussing eFiling with San Francisco county courts.