Last legislative session, the Florida Legislature mandated a pilot project for electronic filing at the First District Court of Appeal. While electronic filing will reduce costs to the Workers’ Compensation Trust Fund, all attorneys and litigants will be able to reap the benefits of this new system, including having access to electronic copies of documents in cases for which they are attorneys or litigants of record, according to the court.

On October 16, the court issued Administrative Order 09-3, announcing the implementation of a new means of filing electronic documents effective October 26.

Initially, the only documents that will be accepted through the court’s secure online portal (known as “eDCA”) will be briefs, petitions, responses to petitions, replies to responses to petitions, and any appendices to those documents. Previously, the court required those documents to be e-mailed and attached as a Word or WordPerfect document. Documents now, however, may be directly uploaded through the court’s Web site as PDF files, which is a more secure and universal format. Once a brief or petition is uploaded through eDCA and accepted by the court, an automatic confirmation e-mail will be sent to the filer.

Attorneys and litigants will need to register online to use eDCA before they can begin electronically filing briefs and petitions. At this time, attorneys and litigants must still file signed paper copies of their documents (along with the requisite copies) with the court, and receipt of the signed paper documents with the court will constitute the filing date of the documents, the court said.

Once registered, attorneys and parties using eDCA benefit by having electronic access to documents and records in cases for which they are the attorney or litigant of record. Electronic briefs on eDCA will be formatted so that they are not simply pictures of pleadings, but easily searchable documents. Portions of a brief or document can be copied and pasted from the original, rather than needing to be re-typed. This formatting will also allow for greater ADA compliance for the court and a benefit to visually impaired attorneys and litigants, the court said.

Not all documents in a case will be available electronically on eDCA, but the court will be continuing to make as many documents available electronically in as many cases as possible.

Any further changes to the court’s requirements on electronic filing (including opening up eDCA to the filing of other types of documents) will be noticed to parties and litigants by a new administrative order. Information will also be available on the court’s Web site at www.1dca.org.