Protocol on Courthouse and County Clerk Procedures for E-filed Cases, NY Supreme Court New York Coun

On July 16, 2015, the New York Supreme Court for New York County released a new protocol for electronically filed cases. See this not so well designed comparison which shows how the protocol has been updated: http://www.courtalert.com/NewsAlert/EFProtocol_71615_20150721_Differences.pdf - if you click on the small yellow word bubbles, windows come up showing the text before and after.

The protocol is notable for the reasons I list below. Whether or not you're filing in New York County, this protocol is a good guide to what courts are concerned with these days vis-a-vis e-filing.

1. E-filing is mandatory in all cases except for those falling under the laws for election, mental hygiene, matrimony, and Article 78 (which concerns appeals of agency decisions.).

2. Documents filed with the court in hard copy get scanned for the New York State eCourts site anyway, and it is the responsibility of the filer to redact any SSNs referenced in them.

3. When a fiing is made in hard copy only in accordance with a recognized emergency exception to the general rule, a 'Notice of Hard Copy Submission - E-Filed Case' must be attached to the back of the last page facing out. Within three business days a e-filing substitute must be made.

4. A placeholder, or 'space saver' in the words of the protocol, must be filed for special exhibits that cannot be e-filed, such as recordings or oversized maps.

5. There is an experimental program for the filing of bookmarked or hyperlinked documents, such affirmations which have links to their exhibits.

6. Each exhibit to an affirmation or affidavit needs to be saved as a separate PDF.

7. Despite a change to the rules, documents which a filer designates as 'secure' will still only be available to the parties online, or to anyone else only at the courthouse, unless the court orders otherwise.

8. A notice of appeal, needs to be filed with the pre-argument statement, the proof of service on opted out parties, and the judgment which is being appealed ,as a single PDF.