Second District eFiling Guidance

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

The Second District Court of Appeals this week started accepting voluntary electronic filing of appeals via the state eFiling portal. The Court has also issued several Administrative Orders to make the process go more smoothly. In AO 2013-2 [.pdf], the Court is requiring all electronic appendices to be fully text-searchable, and indexed or bookmarked. And really, this will make life so much easier for the judges and staff attorneys who are reading your brief and appendix. When it’s easier for them to find your record references, it will also be easier for them to understand your argument.

Filing through the ePortal also means that the former requirement to email a text copy of your brief to the Court has been terminated. See AO 2013-3 [.pdf]. What is not clear, however, is how this will affect the workflow for the judges at the Second DCA. That court is infamous for preparing summaries of briefs that pull together one party’s argument and line it up next to the other party’s. It will be interesting to hear how the judges adjust their process.

Voluntary E-Filing Begins Today in Second DCA

/0 Comments/in , , /by

As previously reported, today’s the day lawyers are permitted (but not required) to file electronically in the Second District Court of Appeal. E-filing will become mandatory October 1, 2013. Administrative Order No. AOSC13-29 [.pdf] setting today’s deadline is available on the Florida Supreme Court’s website.

Second DCA Cleared for E-Filing

/0 Comments/in , , /by

The Florida Supreme Court has announced that the Second District Court of Appeal will be implementing appellate filing through the statewide e-portal. The other DCAs that have gone to electronic filing have used the eDCA system pioneered by the First District, so this will be the first DCA to use the statewide e-filing system. See Administrative Order No. AOSC13-29 [.pdf]. The court will begin accepting voluntary e-filing on August 19, 2013, with efiling becoming mandatory October 1, 2013.

In anticipation of the change, the Second District Clerk’s office will be holding a training session on appellate filing on July 31, 2013 at 2 pm in the Stetson Law School courtroom [.pdf of announcement]. Given how different the ePortal is from eDCA, I am sure the training will be quite interesting.