The Florida Supreme Court’s eFiling program is now live. The first phase of Administrative Order AOSC13-7 [.pdf] went into effect at 12:01 this morning. Get your practice in now, because e-filing through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal is optional now, but it will be mandatory for all Florida attorneys starting Monday, April 1, 2013. Check out my original post on the subject for the details.
Electronic filing in the Florida Supreme Court will be required by all attorneys by the second quarter of this year. In Administrative Order AOSC13-7 [.pdf], the Court announced that effective Wednesday, February 27, 2013, e-filing through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal will be optional for all attorneys, and starting Monday, April 1, 2013, e-Filing is mandatory for all Florida Supreme Court pleadings filed by attorneys. Documents may be submitted as a .pdf, or in Microsoft Word 97 or higher or Word Perfect formats. ¶ 5.
Cases will be considered filed on the date uploaded to the Portal. Each document should be a separate .pdf, with larger .pdfs broken down to accommodate the size limitations of the system. ¶ 7. If somehow you make a mistake in filing, attorneys are permitted to file the corrected document along with a motion requesting that the Court accept the amended filing. ¶ 12.
An attorney’s failure to follow these proceedings may result in the filing be stricken, and even the case being dismissed. ¶ 13. However, pro se litigants and non-Florida lawyers are not required or permitted to use the Portal, and must continue to file in paper format. ¶ 16. However, they are no longer required to file additional copies of the paper documents. ¶ 16.
To allow more time for the deployment of technology to handle it, the Florida Supreme Court has delayed implementation of mandatory e-filing in the Florida appellate courts. The order [.pdf] sets the new deadlines as follows:
I find it interesting, but not surprising, that the First and Fifth — both of which have already implemented the eDCA filing system — are the last to be brought into the new eFiling system. Â They already have an eFiling system that works for them, and I don’t blame them for having difficulties in changing it.