Santa Clara County Requires E-filing in Complex Civil Litigation cases

Here's a press release I received that demonstrates the importance of digital documents. CRS is dedicated to making your job easier, so all of our exhibits and transcripts are in electronic format and uploaded to our website for easy downloading. Our exhibits are always scanned in PDF format and our transcripts are in secure, industry standard E-Transcript format. When it comes time to go to trial and submit transcripts and exhibits to the court, it's all right there, on our website, already done for you. We've been offering this service since 1998, long before it became the popular "new" way to file documents with the court.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – September 1, 2006
ELECTRONIC FILING AND SERVICE REQUIREMENTSFOR COMPLEX CIVIL LITIGATION CASES ONLY

In October 2005, the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara launched an electronic filing (E-filing) pilot program permitting the electronic filing of documents on designated complex civil litigation cases. The current E-filing service provider is Glotrans and the Court’s E-filing website address is http://www.scefiling.org. The E-filing program is an expansion of the Court’s existing Complex Civil Litigation document management website. Initially, parties stipulated to file their documents electronically.
The Judge presiding over Complex Civil Litigation cases has ordered that all actions classified as provisionally complex pursuant to CRC 1800(c) must be electronically filed and served. The Order is effective September 1, 2006. In addition, all actions classified by the Complex Litigation Judge as Complex Litigation are subject to the Court’s Electronic Filing and Service Standing Order, unless exempted by order of the Complex Litigation Judge for good cause. The Electronic Filing and Service Standing Order is published in electronic format on the Court’s website at http://www.scefiling.org and in print format at the Historic Courthouse and the Downtown Superior Court.

E-filing has a wide range of benefits to attorneys and to the Court. It improves accuracy and provides better access to Court records, and should result in significant cost savings to attorneys and their clients, and to the Court. The E-filing system allows interactive communication between the filer and the court through an electronic window. With the click of a mouse, legal documents are sent directly to the clerk of the court through the electronic window. After the case has been accepted, it is digitally stamped with an electronic endorsement and an email is sent to the filer confirming approval of the document. Court fees are pre-programmed into the system and are paid directly to the court when the documents are filed. After successful filing, the document is available to all parties in the system’s central repository. Service is rendered electronically to all case parties who have registered with the website and an electronic proof of service is automatically generated and processed by the Clerk at review time.