Rule 36.10.Filing Requirements–Civil

Rule 36.10 tells clerks when they can — and cannot — accept a civil complaint or petition for filing. It has to come with the proper filing fee, together with either the fee for sheriff’s service or a pauper’s affidavit for someone who cannot afford it. It also has to come with a civil case initiation form and whatever other forms the law or rules require for that particular type of case. The filer, not the clerk, is responsible for providing the copies needed to serve the other parties.

The rule works the same way on the back end. When a case ends — through judgment, settlement, or dismissal — that disposition cannot be filed without a civil case disposition form. Pairing an initiation form with a disposition form gives the court a clean record of when a civil case opened and how it closed, which matters for tracking caseloads and clearance rates across the system.

These paperwork requirements are not optional extras — they are conditions of filing. Absent the required filing fee, sheriff-service fee or affidavit, and forms, the clerk should not accept the complaint at all.