Los Angeles Court eFiling Updates and Best Practices

The Los Angeles Superior Court has transitioned to the next phase of providing for mandatory eFiling for all limited and unlimited jurisdiction civil cases. The court case management system has caused numerous concerns for eFiling providers and customers alike. The Court acknowledged the ongoing challenges facing attorneys, EFSP’s and the Court itself due in large part to the sheer size of the Court, legacy Court data issues, related procedural issues and users learning what the Court is requiring.

There is only a mandatory phase for eFiling Complex Civil documents. Prior to implementation of this mandatory phase, documents may be presented for filing at the clerk’s office or may be submitted via fax filing. Attorneys must eFile documents as of the dates marked as mandatory.

Note: The Court has set a new date for mandatory eFiling for complex cases, which is April 1, 2019, as indicated in the charts below.

* Please find the official court notice here

Court Updates 

The Court provided the following feedback below in response to areas of concerns raised with us by several Electronic Filing Service Providers (EFSP).

1. Financial Issues 

• Fee waiver – The Court acknowledged that it was a configuration error that was causing fees to be assessed on filers, even if a valid fee waiver was on file or was submitted. They have fixed the problem and are working with Journal Technology Inc (JTI) to refund any unwarranted fees to Fee Waiver filers as soon as possible. The Court has asked that the EFSPs be patient and let their filers know that refunds will be issued soon.
• Refunds – We asked for a more formal and ideally streamlined process to be created to enable EFSPs and filers to submit refund requests. The Court agreed and said that they would follow up with us to communicate the new process once they are ready to implement.

2. Cases with Mismatched Data (Previous Physical File vs. New eFile)

• Validation errors – The Court acknowledged that they have a data validation issue and are working to resolve it as quickly as possible. They are even talking about relaxing certain data requirements when a user is trying to submit an eFiling in order to reduce both errors and rejected filings.

Enhanced Support and Escalation process – LASC provided Direct Legal Support a contact at each specific court location to investigate and hopefully resolve any data- or case- related issues preventing a user from submitting an eFiling. The Court’s goal is to have a response within 72 hours on how the filer should proceed. If you encounter such an issue, please contact Direct Legal Support and we will work with the Court in an attempt to resolve.

3. Rejections

• Failed submissions for technical reasons – The Court said that if a filer gets a rejection for technical reasons (metadata validation issues, gateway errors, etc.), then parties should physically file an ex‐parte application for relief. They recognize that the process of filing such an application would be a resource constraint on the court and the filer, but as of now that is the only option available.
• Clerk issues – The Court acknowledged that part of the reason for the high rejection rate is that this is a new process as well for their 150 clerks and that further training is needed. The Court also let us know that they are internally reviewing the most common rejection reasons, rejections that don’t seem to make sense, and the practices being followed by the clerks.

The rate/cause of rejections, processing turnaround times, and pending/aging intervals are as follows based upon LASC performance statistics:

eFiling Rejection Rate:  The overall case rejection rate since eFiling was first launched by LASC in November was 28%. However, over the past few weeks this rate has been greatly reduced.

Here are some of the top reasons for rejections that you may want to share with your customers:

Data entry error by filer – 40%
*Incorrect or abbreviated Party information
*Wrong Court Location selected
*Wrong document type Filing Code selected
*Attorney Information incorrect

Document uploaded is corrupted – 35%
*Missing or incorrect information
*Run-on document
*Missing signature(s)
*Party Names on document does not the court Case Management System

Ineligible for Filing – 10%
*Other documents must be filed first
*Case has been dismissed

*LASC Processing Turnaround Times:
-70% of transactions have been processed by the Court within 1 week
-86% of transactions have been processed by the Court within 2 weeks
-14% of transactions took 2 weeks or longer for the Court to process

*Pending/Aging Intervals:
-65% of pending transactions have been with the Court for a week or less
-19% of pending transactions have been with the Court between 1 and 2 weeks
-16% of pending transactions have been with the Court for greater than 2 weeks

Best Practices for eFiling in Los Angeles Court

Clients submitting documents for electronic filings to the court, you will find some helpful information below to help your staff avoid possible rejections from the court.

Case Initiation Filings:

• When submitting a New or Subsequent document for filing it is always best to use an e-signature, or live scanned signature as the court is rejecting filings for documents that contain: /S/ John Doe on the signature line, instead of a real signature. Civil Rules of of Court (CRC 2.257) allows for this type of signature for filing, but the court have been rejecting filings.
• If any information is missing/inaccurate/incomplete the filing will be rejected
• Be sure to enter all parties exactly as they appear on the complaint (Does are not required)
• Be sure to choose the correct case type (i.e. Personal injury/Property Damage/Wrongful Death – Uninsured Motorist is not the same as Motor Vehicle -Personal injury/Property Damage/Wrongful Death)
• Make sure the Summons and Complaint party names match each other exactly
• Submit the Civil Case Cover Sheet and Civil Case Cover Sheet Addendum as one PDF document
• Make sure all forms are filled out completely and are not missing any information Clerks will not fill in missing or mistyped information on data entry
• Make sure you have the correct number circled or checked on your Civil Case Cover Sheet Addendum in order to file in Los Angeles Central court

Subsequent Filings

• If any information is missing/inaccurate/incomplete the filing will be kicked
• If a party or an attorney are first appearing on the case be sure to add them in the Case Participants section if they are not already listed
• Be sure to label your document type correctly. An incorrect document type will be rejected by the court
• Bookmark your exhibits and make sure the document is text-searchable (OCR)
• Make sure the document uploaded is legible. Anything dark, illegible or fuzzy looking will be kicked
• Verify that the correct statutory fees populate on your eFiling

In the coming weeks and months, you should expect continued performance level improvements on all fronts.

For additional information or a case specific question, please call our Customer Support team at 800-675-5376 or send an email to us.

Thank you for allowing us to serve you!

Direct Legal Support