How's the transition to appellate e-filing going? Not so well, according to family law specialist Thomas Hall in E-filing Blues at the California Supreme Court in today's DJ. He asserts that the Supreme's e-filing program "is off to a rocky start" and raises "serious questions about access to justice." Why? Well, he's not thrilled with TrueFiling, the private company that contracts with the State for the e-portal, and which charges a fee for each filing and service. But he's unhappy that the fees apparently aren't disclosed anywhere. (They are currently $10.50 per filing.) Also, TrueFiling's website apparently says that it will convert docs to text searchable format--but that is definitely not true. So filers (including small firms) have to get conversion software for this. Upon purchasing software ("on a list recommended by TrueFiling's support team") it turns out the software didn't work and seems to be a scam.To be sure, the e-filing transition takes some time to get used to... so don't put off your preparation. Most appellate lawyers have already made the transition (b/c most state appellate courts have been using TrueFiling for quite a while now). But soon all California appellate courts will be TrueFiling courts. And for LA practitioners who have been putting this off, the time is now, given that the 2d DCA will be implementing TrueFiling later this year.
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