The Los Angeles Superior Court will implement electronic filing (efiling) for probate cases effective June 5, 2017. As of that date, documents filed in the Probate Division must be filed electronically through an electronic filing service provider (with a few exceptions, noted below).
Last May, the Court replaced its decades-old probate case management system with state of the art technology. This new system has provided efficiencies for staff and improved the Court’s ability to maintain complete and easily accessible records. The ability to provide an efiling process is an additional benefit of the new system.
Due to severe budget reductions imposed during the recession, the Los Angeles Superior Court was forced to consolidate and relocate most of the probate operations to the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles, eliminating probate courtrooms in all of the districts with the exception of the Michael D. Antonovich Antelope Valley Courthouse in Lancaster. The new efiling capability will eliminate the need to travel to one of those courthouses in order to file certain probate documents.
Exceptions to mandatory efiling in probate cases are:
1. Peremptory challenges or challenges for cause of a judicial officer (CCP §170.6 or 170.1)
2. Original testamentary instruments (wills & codicils), letters, original trust documents, and bond or undertaking documents
3. Trial and hearing exhibits
4. Documents filed in civil cases that are related for handling in the probate division
5. Lodged documents
Further, pursuant to California Rules of Court, rule 2.253(b)(2) and Code of Civil Procedure section 1010.6, self-represented litigants are exempt from mandatory electronic filing. Documents may be presented for filing at the clerk’s office or may be submitted electronically.
All electronically filed documents received after midnight will be deemed filed as of the next business day.
Efiling instructions from each electronic filing service provider will be available on the Court’s website at lacourt.org by April 1, 2017.
Over the next 18 months, the Court will be replacing case management systems for other case types which will allow for the expansion of electronic filing court wide.
http://www.lacourt.org/newsmedia/uploads/1420171271503217NRPROBATEELECTRONICFILINGS.pdf
Categorized in: Legal Procedure
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