Florida Supreme Court delays mandatory e-filing....again.

By order dated November 28, 2012, the Supreme Court of Florida once again changed the date on which e-filing rules will become effective. After considering the status report by the Florida Courts E-filing Authority, and the response by the Florida Courts Technology Committee, the Court ordered that the e-filing rules will be mandatory as follows:

• In the Supreme Court on February 27, 2013;
• In the Second District Court of Appeal on July 22, 2013
• In the Third District Court of Appeal on September 27, 2013; 
• In the Fourth District Court of Appeal on October 31, 2013;
• In the Fifth District Court of Appeal on November 27, 2013; and 
• In the First District Court of Appeal on December 27, 2013. 

The Court further ordered that the Chief Justice may make e-filing rules effective earlier on a voluntary basis in the Supreme Court by administrative by order of the chief justice. Similarly, each district chief judge may order that e-filing rule be effective earlier on a voluntary basis.

Apps for Attorneys

The Indiana Law Journal has a very nice annotated list of apps for lawyers.

Fourth Rule Change in a Month: New Judicial Administration Rule 2.514 Governs Computation of Time

Today, the Florida Supreme Court adopted Rule of Judicial Administration 2.514 governing computation of time in all state court proceedings. The computation itself remains essentially the same as it had been under current rules 1.090 and 9.420, but clarifies that the 5 days additional time for mailing also applies to service by email. Oddly, though, this new rule 2.514 goes into effect October 1, 2012, one month AFTER the new email service rule goes into effect.

This is the fourth rule change adopted by the Court over the last month, the prior changes being:

• service by email (effective September 1, 2012);
• electronic filing (October 1 in appellate courts; April 1, 2013 in civil); and
• electronic discovery (September 1, 2012)).

One More Vote for Two Spaces

In Whatch Gonna Do--One Space or Two, Wayne Schiess agrees that the better practice is one space. I think the choice is even clearer than he does. What do you think?

E-service, E-filing, and Now E-discovery--Another Florida Rule Change

In addition to its recent opinion requiring service by email (effective September 1, 2012), the Supreme Court of Florida recently issued two more opinions changing the rules of civil procedure in significant ways.

First, the Court amended the rules to require electronic filing. This rule will take effect on October 1, 2012 in state appellate courts; and on April 1, 2013 in civil, probate, small claims, and family law divisions of the trial courts, as well as appeals to the circuit courts in those cases. The effective date for criminal and traffic cases will be October 1, 2013.

Second, the Court amended the rules to address electronic discovery. This rule will take effect on September 1, 2012.

Let's not rush into this email business...

On Tuesday, June 25, the Florida Supreme Court amended last week’s opinion to change the effective date for mandatory email service from July 1 to September 1, 2012. The rule remains the same in all other respects. In an email announcing the change, the Florida Bar also announced that it would be providing complimentary CLE to all lawyers regarding the change. It did seem that the original effective date was given with extremely short notice. Why? Had the issuance of the opinion been delayed? Does anyone have inside info?

 

July 1 marks beginning of mandatory service by e-mail

In an opinion issued last week, the Florida Supreme Court created Rule of Judicial Administration 2.516 requiring email service of all papers after the initial summons and complaint. New rule 2.515 similarly requires an attorney’s signature block include his or her primary email address, and any secondary email addresses.

The rules take effect July 1, 2012, and apply to all state civil and appellate cases. Note the following specifics:

• Upon appearing in a proceeding, a lawyer must serve a designation of a primary email address (and may designate two secondary addresses) for receiving service.
• If an attorney fails to designate an email address, service may be made on that attorney at the email address on record with the Florida Bar.
• Service by e-mail is deemed complete when the e-mail is sent.
• Service by email is treated as service by mail for purposes of the computation of time.
• E-mail service is made by attaching a copy of the document to be served in PDF format to an e-mail. 
• The subject line of the e-mail must contain the words “SERVICE OF COURT DOCUMENT” in all capital letters, followed by the case number of the relevant proceeding. 
• The body of the e-mail must identify the court in which the proceeding is pending, the case number, the name of the initial party on each side, the title of each document served with that e-mail, and the sender’s name and telephone number. 
• Any document served by email may be signed by the “/s/” format, but the filed original must be signed in accordance with the applicable rule of procedure.
• The e-mail and attachments together may not exceed 5 megabytes in size; e-mails that exceed the size requirement must be divided into separate e-mails (no one of which may exceed 5 megabytes) and labeled sequentially in the subject line.