eFiling Insights and Tips
Courts across California are steadily migrating to eFiling for all types of cases.
Most recently in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Superior Court (LASC) began mandatory eFiling for most Civil cases with over 50,000 case transactions processed in the first 60 days. Clearly, it’s a trend that legal professionals need to be aware of and prepared for.
While the majority of eFile cases are successfully filed on an initial attempt, Rapid Legal has noticed the following pattern of rejection causes that Law Firms and Legal Professionals should give particular attention to when attempting an eFiling:
Party’s name does not match the party’s name listed on the initial lead document
For example: If plaintiff name on the caption of the complaint shows “Jane C. Doe”, then it must be entered to match throughout the eFiling. If defendant name is “John Doe, an individual” it must also be entered to match, including “an individual.”
Incorrect case type selected
The case type must match the selection on the Civil Case Cover Sheet. (When eFiling in LASC, also note the need for the Civil Case Cover Sheet addendum)
Incorrect document type selected
If the document is for a “judgment,” then that specific category must be selected. Following that selection, then choose the document title within that category.
California Court’s currently offering eFiling include Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara. A more extensive list of eFile Courts supported by Rapid Legal can be found here; California eFile Courts
Rapid Legal’s Concierge Service is also available as a “white glove” solution for any order you would prefer to not have to compliance check, digitally process and/or troubleshoot on your own.
Los Angeles Superior Court Surpasses 30,000 eFilings in the First Few Weeks
Are you ready for the Court’s next mandatory deadline on January 2, 2019?
Since the launch of eFiling for Limited Civil on November 13, 2018, followed by the launch of eFiling for Unlimited Civil on December 3, over 30,000 cases have already been digitally filed.
We are proud to report that Rapid Legal was fully integrated with the LASC on the first day the platform launched and has served as the Electronic Service Provider of choice for thousands of eFilings in the first few weeks.
While the Court’s overall eFiling rollout has been impressive, there has been a high number of rejections in the early weeks as the court and eFilers become accustomed to the new system and requirements. We strongly recommend Law Firms and Legal Professionals give particular attention to the following areas causing many of the rejections to date:
Party’s name does not match the party’s name listed on the initial lead document
For example: If plaintiff name on the caption of the complaint shows “Jane C. Doe”, then it must be entered to match throughout the eFiling. If defendant name is “John Doe, an individual” it must also be entered to match including “an individual.”
Incorrect case type selected
The case type must match the selection on the Civil Case Cover Sheet.
Incorrect document type selected
If the document is for a “judgment,” then that specific category must be selected. Following that selection, then choose the document title within that category.
Rapid Legal’s Concierge Service is also available as a “white glove” solution for any order you would prefer to not have to compliance check, digitally process and/or troubleshoot on your own.
Looking ahead to immediately after the holidays, take note that Limited Civil and Unlimited Civil cases will become mandatory on January 2, 2019.
What’s the Difference Between eFiling and Physical Court Filing?
California is on the forefront of the digital revolution once more — and this time it’s in the world of legal documentation. A new option for legal professionals has emerged — electronic filing (eFiling). At the same time, physical court filing isn’t going to disappear overnight. Here’s what you need to know about the differences between the two.
The Growing Trend
While not every single one has made the transition, a number of the California Superior Courts have adopted an eFiling method for legal documents. This new trend is growing steadily, with some courts making eFiling mandatory while others will accept electronic filing in addition to traditional physical filing methods.
One of the newest courts getting ready to accept eFiling is the Los Angeles Superior Court, which operates almost 50 courthouses throughout the county.
Few legal professionals deal exclusively with a single court. Odds are that, even if your court still accepts physical document filing, eventually they’ll implement mandatory eFiling, so now is the time to seek understanding of the new processes these courts have put in place and how they differ.
Electronically or In-Person
No matter how a document is delivered, Court filing is a stressful and often time-consuming process. Dedicating staff hours to drafting, proofing, printing, and collating countless reams of paper is a draining process and one that could be all for naught if an error slips through to the final document that gets submitted to the court clerk. Delays in getting documents submitted or having documents rejected can be costly, and not just in legal fees — they can lead to losing an important case.
You can file a document digitally with an attorney service provider that is qualified to process electronic files. These files are then transmitted electronically through the service provider’s portal and passed through to the courts. As a result, there’s no need to physically hand deliver a hard copy to the court. It’s also, by and large, less expensive in the long run as well.
For the Courts that do not have eFiling technology implemented yet, they require a person the physically walk into the court and hand deliver it. You probably realize by now that all the courts have to be adopting eFiling soon as it seems less efficient and productive to hand deliver something with all the technology that’s been around for years.
Finding the Right EFSP
Attorney Service Providers in California have been offering hand-delivery of court documents for quite some time. In many cases, the process is identical from your end — you upload your documents to a provider and they handle delivery. The difference is how this delivery is made. If your court accepts eFiling, whether mandatory or permissive, then you need to ensure your provider is a certified electronic filing service provider (EFSP).
Not every EFSP is created equal, however. As there’s no truly standardized approach of eFiling in the California Superior Court system, it’s imperative that you partner with a provider that has experience in navigating the varied eFiling requirements of each specific court. That’s why your best choice will always be Rapid Legal.
The Rapid Legal Difference
Law firms that make use of Rapid Legal’s electronic file and serve system can rely on our well-earned reputation. As early adopters of eFiling technology, Rapid Legal also has decades of experience in hand-delivering court documents in the traditional manner as well, making it easy for you to get your documents to the court on time.
Wrap up
Whether relying on our capabilities as a certified EFSP or in need of a court document filed physically, you need simply upload the documents in question and select your desired filing method. If a court offers eFiling, the option will be there. We offer document filing and more — through our online customer portal you can manage cases and corresponding documents, retrieve Proofs of Service and Conformed Copies. It’s just one login, one password, and one simple solution.
No Strings Attached - eFile with Rapid Legal in These California Courts
As always, the great state of California is ahead of the curve when it comes to innovations and technology. In this case, it’s electronic legal document filing — there are a number of courts in California that no longer require documents to be delivered by hand.
The New Normal
The push away from physical court filing is nothing new — it’s well-publicized that electronic court filing (eFiling) has become the preferred or even mandatory method for filing court documents. However, once this ball gets rolling, it’s going only going to pick up speed. Sooner or later eFiling is going to be the rule instead of the exception, and at that point you’re going to need an expert with plenty of experience in meeting these electronic document filing standards.
Start becoming prepared for the change today. Rapid Legal is the natural choice — we were there at the very beginning of the eFile movement, and we’re proud to have been an early adopter. We’ve developed the skills and the expertise to provide aid in eFiling in 36 of California’s counties, and we’re adding more all the time.
Counties Where Rapid Legal Can eFile for You
The list of where Rapid Legal can provide your legal office with eFiling services is expansive. Here are the counties our comprehensive electronic document filing systems service:
- Alameda
- Butte
- Calaveras
- Contra Costa
- El Dorado
- Fresno
- Imperial
- Kern
- Kings
- Los Angeles
- Madera
- Mariposa
- Mendocino
- Merced
- Monterey
- Napa
- Nevada
- Orange
- Placer
- Riverside
- San Benito
- San Bernardino
- San Diego
- San Francisco
- San Luis Obispo
- San Mateo
- Santa Barbara
- Santa Clara
- Santa Cruz
- Sonoma
- Stanislaus
- Sutter
- Tehama
- Tulare
- Yolo
- Yuba
Rapid Legal is a certified Electronic Filing Service Provider (EFSP). Rely on us to eFile your California court documents quickly, accurately, and as painlessly as possible!
Wrap up
How do you choose the right attorney service provider? It’s important to ensure that you choose the best company for your needs, as it has to be able to provide you the quality level of filing and serving services that you, as a legal professional, require. This can easily become an exhausting process.
For a closer look at how Rapid Legal has both the skills and the expertise to provide you the court eFiling, physical filing and process serving services you require, check out our complete offering.
Common Reasons For Court Filing Rejections - And How To Avoid Them
You’ve done your due diligence. You’ve dotted every I and crossed every T, proofread it what seems like a dozen times, gotten it into the proper hands well before the deadline — and still, the court rejects your filing. What gives? What are you doing wrong?
The truth is that court filing rejections are much more common than you think. Every instance is different, but here are just a few of the most common reasons the court might reject your next filing.
Wrong Case Number and/or Location
It’s important to note that the case number of the filing appears in multiple locations – the filing itself and on the document. If even one of these numbers doesn’t match the other, the court is going to reject the filing. Yes, even if the case number on the filing is the correct one.
Meanwhile, another very common mistake is to file your documents in the wrong court altogether. This is less of an oversight issue, considering the relative complexity of the court system. However, there are some tools out there to prevent this from happening. If you’re filing a new case in Los Angeles, for example, you can check the Filing Court Locator before you submit the documents. A simple ZIP code check can save you or your firm some serious time and/or money.
Faulty Documents
Beyond issues like incorrect case numbers or literally filing the documents in the wrong court, there are plenty of other mistakes that can result in a rejection. Legibility is a major concern, and it’s something that comes up increasingly thanks to the transition to electronic submission. Issues like improper scanning, submitting in an incorrect format, or not including required file attachments can all be the kiss of death for eFiled court documents.
Of course, there are plenty of other issues that can cause a rejection — ones that aren’t necessarily caused by electronic document delivery issues. Filling out a court form that’s old and obsolete isn’t going to win you any fans with the court clerk, and neither is leaving any of the documents you submit without having the proper signatures on them.
Some of these issues can be fixed simply through higher levels of diligence. Others are more technical, especially when it comes to scanning documents – ensuring you’re saving scanned docs in black and white, that these documents are being scanned exclusively in PDF format, and making sure your printer settings are set to a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi) can all make scanned documents clearer and easy to read.
Court Filing Rejections are Not Cost-Effective
There’s no arguing the point that having court filing rejections are costly. The time wasted in preparing these documents, only to have to prepare them again, means less time spent on other, possibly more important matters; the financial cost is also significant, considering that you’ll have to pay even more filing fees to re-submit.
What you need, of course, is a more cost-effective solution. Let’s face it: your lawyers and support staff are already working at full capacity. That’s why these filing rejections happen, as no one has the bandwidth to make sure these documents are vetted properly before submission. Your firm needs to farm your document submission process to a third party — but not just any outfit will do.
How to Avoid a Court Filing Rejection at the Court
Triple-check everything.
It’s always a good habit to double-check your work. Is that enough? Usually yes, but when it comes to court documents, you should always take the time to give them one last review before sending them to be filed. That last review can be crucial in catching a wrongly dated form or a missing signature; even an out-of-date Proof of Service. When you’ve finished filling in a form or titling a document, check it. When it looks good, check it again. Before sending it, check it one more time. Your client, your case or your reputation could depend on it.
Why Law Firms Are Switching To An Online Service Provider
Being a legal professional is tough. It’s nowhere near what it’s like in John Grisham novels or Hollywood’s dramatic courtroom dramas – you’ve got countless hours of education, on-the-job training in the form of internships, and then the actual minutiae of the actual position to endure every day.
Nowhere is this truer than the sheer amount of paperwork that a legal professional must deal with on any given day.
When you’re responsible for the legal filing services for a law firm, you’re not just submitting a few briefs here and there – lawyers, legal professionals, and staff are inundated, each and every day, with legal documents that not only have to be created, reviewed and delivered to the courts but have to be precise and submitted so in a timely manner, as even the smallest error – or missing what seems like an unimportant-seeming deadline – can spell disaster for law firms and the clients they represent.
Filing legal documents correctly and on time is often a thankless, tedious job but one that’s absolutely crucial. Serious adverse consequences can occur if filings are not done properly, up to and including your court case being dismissed outright on procedural grounds. That’s why, if you’re a legal professional, it’s vital to move to adopt an online attorney service firm today.
The Old Way of Doing Things is Just Too Slow
Think about it this way: the old way of getting your legal documents to the court or your process server is just too slow and antiquated, especially in the 21st century. The wheels of justice might grind exceedingly slow, but there’s no reason you must adhere to that snail’s pace of getting your documents filed and served or your proofs of service and conformed copies back – not when you have the ability to enlist an online court filing service that provides you a way to upload your documents electronically to accomplish these essential tasks.
Traditional methods of getting your documents ready for pick up also includes you spending valuable time on the preparation process printing these documents out, ensuring they’re collated correctly, and scheduling a pickup. If the papers are not ready when the courier shows up, you may have to call someone back later. That could be costly. 
Missing any errors, meanwhile, is even worse. A court runner who picks up your documents many times won’t discover errors until he’s at the court. Not only is that a waste of time and money, doing so can get these documents rejected at the very last minute which could be devastating to your case.
Alternatively, when you upload your documents to an online attorney service provider, you get another set of eyes on your filing before it’s delivered to the court. Potential mistakes are found sooner – rather than later. This can result in less rejections and a greater success rate for your cases.
Types of Court Services
Sometimes it feels as if there are as many different types of court documents that need to be filed as there are minutes in the day. To that end, rules and requirements may vary from court to court.
In some jurisdictions, physical copies of documents are required to be hand delivered, seemingly obviating the need of an online service provider. However, many service providers have the capabilities of receiving the electronic version of your document near the appropriate jurisdiction, printing them locally and then personally delivering the hard copy of that document on your behalf. These hybrid online services can be considered the best of both worlds – the speed and reliability of electronic delivery combined with the attention to detail that you need from a service that physically files your court documents.
Of course, not all court documents need to end up in the hands of a file clerk at the courthouse. Some of those documents, such as a service of process order, can be uploaded from your computer and delivered to a local registered process server and hand-delivered to the right people. Proof of service documents are often filed afterward, and many Attorney Service Providers can even provide skip trace services as well.
Not Just Quicker and More Accurate but More Affordable As Well
The wheels of justice require constant lubrication. In the context of filing court documents, this lubrication comes in the form of the myriad fees that you need to pay in order to have these documents accepted. Whether it’s in a family law court, civil unlimited, unlimited state court, municipal court, or if it’s on the federal circuit, each and every document has a differently-priced fee requirement, and there are no guarantees that you will receive a refund for an incorrectly filed document.
This is yet another reason why it’s advantageous to use a trusted online legal service provider instead of managing the court filings yourself.
Additionally, as if this wasn’t enough of an incentive, the fees charged by online service providers are often comparable to – or even more affordable than – making use of a courier service to run prepared physical documents to the court for filing.
Did you know? You can upload your documents from your desk in Los Angeles, and your service provider can get your filings done in many places like San Francisco or Orange County. You can even serve someone Nationwide simply by uploading your documents. Your administration cost is greatly reduced by using one service provider rather than several courier services.
Choosing the Right Online Services Provider
At this point, it might have become patently clear that you need to transition from your existing court filing process. Clinging to the old, traditional model of how court filings are handled is not only costing you time, it’s also generating undue amounts of stress and may even lead to having to pay for even the smallest mistake. No, it’s unquestionably time that you enlist the help of a company that provides professional online services.
Many legal professionals rely on outsourcing the management of their filings and serves to legal filing service as a method for taking some of the stress off their own shoulders. Yet this represents another possible problem – there’s no telling whether this third party is going to be as diligent and timely as you are with your court filings and serves.
So where do you turn? How do you choose the right attorney service provider? It’s important to ensure that you choose the best company for your needs, as it has to be able to provide you the quality level of filing and serving services that you, as a legal professional, require. This can easily become an exhausting process.
Thankfully, there is one company that has both the skills and the expertise to provide you the court eFiling, physical filing and process serving services you require. You can turn to an expert attorney service provider like Rapid Legal for all of your filing and serving legal document needs.
About Rapid Legal
Dedicated to accountability, excellence, and integrity, Rapid Legal, founded in 1994 has more than three decades of experience in the legal industry. Rapid Legal was an early adopter and provider of eFiling services in the California counties that have adopted eFiling and continues this tradition today in providing fast, accurate, and affordable services to law firms, government agencies, and companies across the US.
Rapid Legal provides a wide range of legal services. It specializes in both electronic filing (eFiling) and physical court filing by hand-delivering documents for clients who upload them to Rapid Legal’s portal. Additionally, Rapid Legal can ensure one of its process servers physically delivers a digitally uploaded document for the service of process anywhere in California and Nationwide.
That’s not all that Rapid Legal offers. In addition to these three valued services, it also provides fast and reliable nationwide records retrieval service, county recording services for documents such as liens, judgments, and notices, and Secretary of State filing for documents like incorporation articles. Rapid Legal even offers courtesy copy delivery to wherever such copies may need to be sent to a particular department or judge’s chambers.
The Rapid Legal Difference
Rapid Legal is one of the most affordable options when it comes to filing legal documents either physically or electronically. With its offer of multiple tiers of service, Rapid Legal ensures that you’ll never have to pay too much for the level of service you need.
Rapid Legal knows how vital it is to make sure that legal documents are submitted in a reliable, timely matter, which is why it provides the highest of guarantees to its customers.
Rapid Legal doesn’t simply subject your uploaded documents to a mindless, automated filing process. Its expert document inspectors are tasked with placing the documents you submit through a seven-point process to ensure they are free of any errors that could result in rejection by the courts. In fact, if Rapid Legal does provide you with improper or incorrect service, your service is guaranteed to be free of charge, proving once again that the company is dedicated to providing you with the highest possible level of service.
Get fast and friendly customer support from Rapid Legal. You can call the team of industry experts for quick answers to all your filing questions.
Don’t Delay – Use Rapid Legal’s Online Option Today
Upload your documents and we’ll handle the rest. Create An Account to get started.
eFiling for Los Angeles Superior Court - Civil Cases
An update on the status of Los Angeles Superior Court (“LASC”) going live with eFiling for Civil Cases.
It is expected that eFiling for Limited Civil Cases will begin in mid-2018, with eFiling for Unlimited Civil Cases sometime late summer 2018. As we get closer to these timeframes we will post updates confirming the Court dates.
We’re Certified to eFile for You
As a certified Electronic Filing Service Provider (EFSP), you can trust we’re compliant with all current eFiling standards. See all the counties we eFile on Electronic Court Filing page.
Rapid Legal's History
As an online attorney service, Rapid Legal’s mission is “to propel the legal industry forward through web-based technology.” Our pioneering role in electronic court filing and process serving has enabled us to create a history that is rich with pivotal moments in web-based technology. We look forward to the next 20 years.
