Florida Courts EFiling Mandatory On April 1st

Florida Courts eFiling Portal. Let me begin by assuring my readers that this is NOT an April fools joke. Florida lawyers must file all papers and pleadings electronically on and after April 1, 2013. No paper filings will be permitted or required. It was the talk of the courthouse when I was downtown for a hearing this morning, and it will most certainly bring its own set of problems. However, it will save tons of postage expenses for most of us, since we will be filing Motions and Answers and other papers electronically both to the Clerk of Courts, and to opposing counsel. I have been waiting for this day since the late nineties. I am happy that I have lived to see it. Unfortunately, pro se litigants and others will still be filing paper; but, the Clerk will be scanning them into the system and destroying the paper as received. This will save a lot of steps and aggravation for those of us who already scan everything and save electronic copies. Welcome to the future of lawyering.

Comments

[Will Williams]

Hi Rick

Over here in England, things are different. I work as a government lawyer and do administrative law work in High Court at the Strand in London and in regional High Court offices that deal with this sort of work.

If you need to file pleadings at short notice, while the Court staff are always helpful, doing so by fax or by PDF attachment to email is strongly discouraged. The reason? The Court has to pay for the paper!

That said, I'm all for having pleadings kept as scanned documents, when it comes to dealing with cases, particularly those I've not dealt with myself before, I want to see pleadings and evidence in paper.

Will counsel and judges in Florida still have papers to hand at hearings and trials?

Regards
Will