Rule 21.080.Electronic Filing and Electronic Filing Deadlines

Start with timing. A filer may use the system at any time except when it is temporarily unavailable, and a document due on a given day is timely if filed by 11:59:59 p.m. in the time zone where the court is located. The court considers a document submitted when the system receives it, and the system emails the filer the date and time of receipt unless the filer has turned that email off in system settings.

Acceptance relates back. If the court accepts the document, the date and time of filing entered in the register go back to the moment the system received it, and the system affixes that date and time on the document. Acceptance generates its own email, subject to the same setting. Documents needing the court's signature sit outside this: when the court accepts a proposed order or judgment, or any other document requiring court signature, that document is deemed submitted for judge review rather than treated as a completed filing.

Rejection is recoverable. If the court rejects a submission, the system emails the filer an explanation and a hyperlink to the document. A filer who resubmits within three days of the rejection date may ask that the filing date relate back to the original submission, and if the third day is not a judicial day, the next judicial day works. Resubmission means either another electronic submission or physical delivery of the document to the court. The request needs a cover letter giving the original submission date, the rejection date, and the reason for the request, carrying the words RESUBMISSION OF REJECTED FILING, RELATION-BACK DATE OF FILING REQUESTED in its subject line, and the same words in the Filing Comments field for an electronic resubmission. A responding party may object within the time the law allows for that type of document, counted from the resubmission date.

System failure works much the same way, with different words. If the system is temporarily unavailable, or a transmission error or other technical problem keeps it from receiving the document, the court must, on satisfactory proof, permit the filing date to relate back to the filer's first attempt. The cover letter gives the date of the attempted submission and the date the filer learned it had failed, and carries the words RESUBMISSION OF FILING, SUBMISSION UNSUCCESSFUL, RELATION-BACK DATE OF FILING REQUESTED, with the same words in the Filing Comments field. Supporting exhibits substantiating the malfunction may go along. Trouble on the filer's own end is treated differently: technical problems with the filer's equipment or transmission will not generally excuse an untimely filing, and relation back there requires a showing of extraordinary circumstances on satisfactory proof, explained in the cover letter.