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FSC Issues Amendment to E-filing,
E-service and Signature Rules |
The Supreme Court recently released SC 13-1915, showing amendments to Florida Rules of Judicial Administration 2.515 Signature of Attorneys and Parties; 2.516 Service of Pleadings and Documents; and 2.525 Electronic Filing, proposed by The Florida Bar's Rules of Judicial Administration Committee. In short, here is what the new opinion provides:
- The signature of an attorney constitutes a certificate by the attorney that the document contains no confidential or sensitive information, or that any such information has been properly protected,
- The act of filing or serving a document binds the "signing" attorney to the document; the use of the signing attorney's credentials links the signing attorney to the filing of a document; and other attorneys who sign the document are bound by the contents of the document and the certifications contained in the rule.
- Serving a document, or by filing a document by electronic transmission using the attorney's assigned electronic filing credentials, the attorney certifies compliance with all Florida rules of procedure regarding service of the document.
- A filer has fully complied with the rule's e-mail service requirement if a document is served through the portal. The filer need not also serve the electronically filed document by e-mail. However, the filer of an electronic document must verify that the portal uses the names and e-mail addresses provided by the parties. An attorney is responsible for the accuracy of, and changes to, that attorney's own e-mail addresses maintained by the portal. If a document is served electronically through the portal, service is complete on the date the served document is electronically filed and such e-service is treated as service by mail for computation of time purposes.
- The mailing addresses of those served be must be included in the certificate of service.
- Only the electronic filing credentials of an attorney who has signed a document may be used to file that document by electronic transmission.
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Upcoming Portal Enhancements
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The Florida Court Clerks and Comptrollers (FCCC) portal staff recently made a presentation at a FCCC meeting in Ft. Myers where several enhancements were announced and are due out in the next version release 2013.03. On December 20 starting at 8 p.m., the E-Filing Portal will be down for maintenance in order to make the following modifications:
Enhancements for Filers
- The Portal date stamp will appear on the upper left corner of the first page of each document and will contain the filing reference number
- Filers will be able to remove payment account information
- Filings will not be able to exceed $3,000 in total filing fees
- Pending Queue notification e-mail has been modified to provide more clear instructions to the filer regarding pending filings
- Credit card expiration year drop down list has been expanded to include years up to 2025
- Replaced the Notice of Confidentiality with an updated form
Bug fixes
- Filer Password reset is not successful for all filers
- Summons fees in filings sent to the pending queue do not remain intact
Portal staff are also investigating recent issues regarding a new version of Internet Explorer 11 and the portal, but the issue is not yet clear nor are staff certain what, if anything, needs to be done to the portal. ...more to come on that after FCCC staff concludes its research.
Watch for the release notes on the portal's official website. |
Saturday Branch Office Hours Begin January 1, 2014
Many of our customers have a problem getting to our offices during normal business hours since those are also the hours they work. While we have made every effort through our website to accept payments, provide information and to otherwise serve them from their home or office, some customers and certain services can't effectively be done over the web.
Therefore, beginning January 4 we will open our Northeast Branch office at 1276 Metropolitan Boulevard, #101, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Customers can pay traffic tickets, make court payments, file documents with Official Records, apply for marriage licenses and receive other general information services. (Passport services cannot be offered at this location due to federal restrictions on location.)
This is an experiment to see if the demand for these services warrants staying open. We are making a commitment to provide these services for a minimum of six months. We will have an extensive communications program designed to get the word out. At the end of the six month period we will evaluate the effectiveness of Saturday services and make a decision whether to continue to provide these extended hours, extend the test period, or discontinue Saturday services. |
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Clerk's Official Title and Seal are Changing
This past year, the Florida Legislature amended
Fla. Stat. § 101.151(2)(a)5
to provide additional clarity to the title of Clerk. When the Clerk serves as both the Clerk and Comptroller of the county, as in Leon County, the title on the ballot will be Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller.
There has been much confusion regarding this over the years in that the title was not adequately descriptive of the responsibilities. The new title should provide additional clarity and direction for citizens seeking services.
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