Administrative Order 16 - ELECTRONIC FILING PILOT PROJECT FOR THE DISTRICT COURTS

Obsolete Date: 8/1/2010

A. Electronic Filing.

1. Documents may be filed electronically in the district courts.

2. A document filed electronically has the same legal effect as a paper document.

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

B. Filing Formats. Documents filed electronically must be submitted by facsimile transmission or e-mail to the district court clerk unless otherwise ordered by the court. A directory of district court fax numbers and e-mail addresses for electronic filing is available online at www.ndcourts.gov. E-mailed documents must be in portable document format (.pdf) or approved word processing format.

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

2. All paragraphs must be numbered in documents filed electronically. Reference to material in such documents must be to paragraph number, not page number.

C. Time of Filing.

1. A document in compliance with the rules and submitted electronically to the district court clerk by 11:59 p.m. local time will be considered filed on the date submitted.

2. Upon receiving a document filed by e-mail, the district court clerk will issue an e-mail confirmation that the document has been received.

3. A party filing a document electronically must pay any required filing fee within five days. If fees are not paid within five days of submission, the document will be returned by the district court clerk and the party will be required to refile the document.

D. Electronic Service.

1. If a party files a document by electronic means, the party must serve the document by electronic means if the recipient consents to accept documents served electronically. Service by electronic means is not effective if the party making service learns that the attempted service did not reach the person to be served.

2. A party may designate a fax number or an e-mail address as their address for the purpose of accepting electronic service.

3. If a recipient does not consent to accept electronic service of a document, service by another means specified in the rules is required.

4. For purposes of computation of time, any document electronically served must be treated as if it were mailed on the date of transmission.

E. Effective Date. This Order is effective March 1, 2006, and remains in effect until further order of the Court. This Order was revised, effective March 1, 2008; March 1, 2009.

[Adopted effective March 1, 2006. This Order was amended, effective March 1, 2008; March 1, 2009.]