Administrative Order 14 ELECTRONIC FILING PILOT PROJECT

Obsolete Date: 8/1/2003

This order provides for electronic filing with the supreme court.

A. Electronic Filing.

1. Parties may electronically file motions and comments with the supreme court.

2. Parties must obtain permission from the supreme court clerk to file electronically briefs, appendices, requests for supervision and requests for extraordinary writs.

3. A document that is filed electronically has the same legal effect as an original paper document.

4. The typed attorney or party name or facsimile signature on a document filed electronically has the same effect as an original manually affixed signature.

B. Filing Formats.

1. Documents filed electronically may be submitted by email to supclerkofcourt@ndcourts.gov. Emailed documents must be in portable document format or approved word processing format.

a. Approved word processing formats for documents filed electronically are WordPerfect, Word, and ASCII. Parties must obtain permission from the supreme court clerk in advance if they seek to submit documents in another word processing format.

b. All paragraphs must be numbered in approved word processing format documents. Reference to material in such documents must be to paragraph number, not page number.

c. Hard page breaks must separate the cover, table of contents, table of cases, and body of approved word processing format briefs.

d. If permission is granted to file electronically an appendix, the appendix must be submitted in portable document format.

2. Documents filed electronically may be submitted to the supreme court clerk by facsimile only if email submission is not possible. Documents filed by facsimile must be submitted to the supreme court clerk at 701-328-4480.

C. Time of Filing.

1. A document in compliance with the Rules of Appellate Procedure and submitted electronically to the supreme court clerk by 11:59 p.m. Bismarck time shall be considered filed on the date submitted.

2. Upon receiving a document filed electronically, the supreme court clerk will issue an email confirmation that the document has been received.

3. A party filing a document electronically must pay any required filing fee.

4. A party must pay all required fees within five days of submitting a document filed electronically. If fees are not paid within five days of submission, the document will be returned by the supreme court clerk and the party will be required to refile the document.

D. Effective Date. This Order is effective March 1, 2003, and remains in effect until further order of the Court.

Dated at Bismarck, North Dakota, February 5, 2003.

Gerald W. VandeWalle, Chief Justice
William A. Neumann, Justice
Dale V. Sandstrom, Justice
Mary Muehlen Maring, Justice

ATTEST: 
Penny Miller, Clerk

Justice Carol Ronning Kapsner, being unavoidably absent, did not participate in this decision.