Electronic filing and issue of Court documents

HM Court Service is rolling out its electronic document filing system. It is already up and running in the Commercial Court, TCC and Chancery Division. Bankruptcy and Insolvency will go live in the Spring.

The headlines are:

1. Documents can be filed on any day at any time.
2. Proceedings can be issued on line (which may be important in extreme cases where the limitation period is about to expire)
3. If the claim has been started electronically, the parties may subsequently file all subsequent documents electronically including requests for default judgment, statements of case, application notices etc etc
4. But only the Court’s own online forms are acceptable. To start the process send an email to getForm@justice.gsl.gov.uk for instructions
5. There is no online payment system at the moment, but one is promised. In the meantime it seems that a document will be issued subject to a stipulation that issuing party will be required to pay the court fee within a certain period of time and in default the case will be referred to the Judge. Until court users are comfortable that the system works however, I would not suggest leaving issuing a claim form online until the last minute in reliance the hope of obtaining credit.

The practice direction for online document filing can be found at

www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/files/PD-ElectronicWorkingPilotScheme.doc

Grateful thanks to Richard Perkoff of Littleton Chambers www.littletonchambers.com/Barrister/Richard-Perkoff.aspx for this news.