6 Important Rules for Electronic Filing in the California Courts of Appeal

Increasing efficiency and access to justice, reducing costs

With the rapid expansion of technology access, it’s no surprise that the California Courts of Appeal joined many of its neighboring states, and the lower California courts, in requiring electronic filing in 2020. 

When the Supreme Court of California mandated electronic filing back in 2017, Court Administrator and Clerk of the Court, Jorge Navarrete, noted the many benefits that e-filing would deliver, saying: 

“The launch of mandatory eFiling marks a major milestone for the Supreme Court. This more technologically advanced system of filing petitions benefits everyone involved—attorneys, the public and the court—resulting in increased efficiency and cost savings.”¹

Straying from e-filing rules puts your brief at risk

You may not be that familiar with the electronic filing requirements of the California Courts of Appeal—especially if you don’t handle appeals very often—but it’s vital that you follow the rules to the T, or you risk having your filing rejected. 

Here’s a breakdown of the most crucial formatting rules for briefs and motions being e-filed in the California Courts of Appeal:

1. The document must be text searchable. Electronic documents must be in the form of a text-searchable PDF file. If a document is only in paper form, it must be scanned, converted to a PDF, and if possible, optical character recognition should be applied.² You may hear this referred to as a document being “OCR’d”.
   
   
2. The pagination must match the page number for each page of the document. Put more simply, the page numbering of a document must begin with the first page or cover page as page 1 and thereafter be paginated consecutively using only Arabic numerals. For the cover page, however, the page number may be omitted.³ It’s important to remember to accurately repaginate your document as you add, remove, or rearrange sections.
   
   
3. Electronic bookmarks are required. An electronic bookmark is a descriptive text link that appears in the bookmarks panel of an electronic document. These links make it easier for judges (or other readers) to quickly navigate your documents. Each electronic document must include a bookmark to each heading, subheading, and the first page of any component of the document.⁴ Again, it’s important to remember to accurately update your electronic bookmarks as you edit your document, especially if you add, move, or remove sections.
   
   
4. The electronic file cannot exceed 25 megabytes. If your brief surpasses the 25-megabyte file-size limitation, you’ll need to submit the document in multiple volumes. Additionally, while the California Rules of Court require volumes of no more than 300 pages, an electronic filing may exceed this limitation, so long as its individual components comply with the 300-page requirement and the filing does not exceed 25 megabytes.⁵ These requirements can be very time-consuming and tricky to implement correctly, even if you have a lot of experience with Word or WordPerfect.
   
   
5. Electronic signatures are permissible. The California Rules of Court do not require the brief to be signed.⁶ Instead, if a document does not require a signature under penalty of perjury, it is automatically deemed signed by the filer.⁷ If a document does require a signature under penalty of perjury, an electronic signature is satisfactory.⁸ An electronic filer may also satisfy this requirement by physically signing a printed form of the document before filing.⁹  Learn more about the role of signatures in legal briefs.
   
   
6. You have until 11:59 p.m. to file your document. Here’s some good news: one benefit of electronic filing is that it extends the filing window past regular business hours. Notably, a document that is received electronically by 11:59 p.m. is deemed filed that day.¹⁰

Notable exceptions to the electronic filing rules

Of course, as with any set of rules, there are some exceptions to the above requirements. Namely, self-represented parties and parties who show undue hardship or significant prejudice are exempt from the requirement to file documents electronically.¹¹ 

It’s also important to note that each court may also have varying local rules that may change over time. Before filing, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the relevant district’s e-filing rules, which are provided on the respective court’s e-filing web pages. You may also find the California Courts of Appeal e-filing FAQs helpful.

Save time and eliminate the stress of e-filing

Preparing your documents for electronic filing may seem daunting, and there are certainly a lot of discrete requirements to understand and get just right, but TypeLaw is here to help. 

Through a combination of AI automation + human expertise, TypeLaw can quickly and accurately format your documents to comply with all local rules of court, including all e-filing requirements. We even offer same-day turnaround to help you meet the toughest filing deadlines when the pressure’s really on.

TypeLaw has helped attorneys and paralegals in California, and across the country, accurately prepare 10,000+ briefs, pleadings, and motions for cases before all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of the United States. Create your TypeLaw account today and get ready to e-file your next brief with total confidence.

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1. News release: Supreme Court Launches Mandatory eFiling, Sept. 1, 2017. ↩︎
2. Cal. Rules of Ct., rule 8.74(a)(1). ↩︎
3. Cal. Rules of Ct., rule 8.74(a)(2). ↩︎
4. Cal. Rules of Ct., rule 8.74(a)(3). ↩︎
5. Cal. Rules of Ct., rule 8.74(a)(5). ↩︎
6. Cal. Rules of Ct., rule 8.74(c)(1). ↩︎
7. Cal. Rules of Ct. rule 8.75(b)(1). ↩︎
8. Cal. Rules of Ct., rule 8.75(a)(1). ↩︎
9. Cal. Rules of Ct., rule 8.75(a)(2). ↩︎
10. Cal. Rules of Ct., rule 8.77(c). ↩︎
11. Cal. Rules of Ct., rule 8.71. ↩︎