How to pay appellate fees under LASC's new system

Ever since LASC went to e-filing, lawyers, secretaries, and clerks have be going crazy trying to figure out how to perfect an appeal under the new system! Appellate Specialist Mark Schaeffer shares the following:

HOW TO PAY APPELLATE FEES WITH LOS ANGELES SUPERIOR COURT’S RECENTLY-ENACTED MANDATORY ELECTRONIC FILING

Appellate practitioners have to pay an assortment of fees with appeal documents (e.g., notice of appeal, notice designating record on appeal) to Los Angeles Superior Court. For example, a notice of appeal must be accompanied by a $100 fee to LASC and a $775 fee to the Court of Appeal. Until mandatory electronic filing, both payments were given to LASC with the filing of the notice of appeal. LASC would then forward the $775 fee, with a copy of the notice of appeal, to the Court of Appeal. If a reporter’s transcript on appeal is designated, the designating party must deposit the estimated cost for the reporter’s transcript with the filing of the notice designating the record on appeal. 

Documents must now be electronically filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. Appellate practitioners, and LASC, are running into issues with the payment of appeal fees.

With the notice of appeal, some of LASC’s approved e-filing vendors do not have the capability to pay the appeal fees. With those vendors, the appellate fee of $100 to LASC must be brought in person to LASC’s room 111A (the LASC Appeals Unit).  For all vendors, LASC room 111A has advised that it will no longer forward the $775 fee due the Court of Appeal to the Court of Appeal.  That fee must be made directly to the Court of Appeal. But, that fee can only be made after the Court of Appeal has received the notice of appeal from LASC and docketed the appeal with a case number.

As for a party’s designation of the record on appeal, it appears that it is not possible to electronically pay the estimated amount for the reporter’s transcript on appeal through any of LASC’s vendors, according to some of the vendors contacted and LASC room 111A. That fee must be made in person to LASC room 111A.

Hopefully, the e-filing system will be reconfigured in the near future to allow for the payment of fees with the electronic filing of appeal documents.

Other notes about LASC e-filing:

Overall System Performance

• The Court is learning to use its new case management system and making progress daily.
• The court is working with their software vendor to isolate and repair problems.
• Data Quality – Courts are working with “dirty data” from their old system and continue to clean it as quickly as possible.
• Refunds – There was a bug in the court system that wasn’t handling refunds properly. This is being addressed.
• Configuration Consistency Across Products – The old court system consisted of four separate systems that had to be integrated into their new software. Needless to say, they had a few bumps. They continue to work on streamlining any inconsistencies and have internal teams working together from all four areas.