NEW YORK STATE COURTS ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM USER S MANUAL FOR SURROGATE S COURT PART I OVERVIEW OF THE SYSTEM ELECTRONIC FILING RESOURCE CENTER 646-386-3033 efile@courts.state.ny.us Jeffrey Carucci Statewide Coordinator for Electronic Filing
NEW YORK STATE COURTS ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM USER S MANUAL FOR SURROGATE S COURT PART I OVERVIEW OF THE SYSTEM New York State has established a program for the electronic filing and service of court papers in certain types of civil actions, including proceedings in Surrogate s Court in certain counties, at present, Chautauqua, Erie, Monroe, Queens, and Suffolk Counties. The New York State Courts Electronic Filing System ( NYSCEF ) does not affect most of the rules that govern civil litigation. There are, however, some differences between practice in hard copy cases and proceedings and procedures governing filing and service of documents in NYSCEF matters. Regulations for electronic filing and service in Surrogate s Court cases are set forth in Section 207.4-a of the Uniform Rules for the Trial Courts (hereinafter the Surrogate s E-Filing Rules or the Rules ). This User s Manual explains how the NYSCEF system works in Surrogate s Court proceedings. Part I provides a summary of electronic filing and service through NYSCEF and Part II a detailed explanation of the NYSCEF software.
I. ELIGIBLE SURROGATE S COURT PROCEEDINGS NYSCEF may be used to file and serve documents in probate or administration proceedings, miscellaneous proceedings related thereto, and such other types of proceedings as the Court may permit. II. HOW TO BECOME A NYSCEF USER In order to file documents with the Surrogate s Court and to serve documents through NYSCEF (the site for which is located at www.nycourts.gov/efile), a person must become an authorized user of the NYSCEF system. To do so, one must register with the New York State Unified Court System. A registration form is posted on the NYSCEF site. Once the form is properly completed, printed out, signed, and submitted in accordance with the instructions set forth therein, a User ID and password will be issued. All documents electronically served and filed through NYSCEF by that e-filer must be submitted electronically by means of that ID and password, or by that filer s authorized agent. The filer may modify his or her password to one that is more convenient (the original will be selected arbitrarily by the Court System) by clicking on the Modify Profile tab at the top of any NYSCEF screen. An e-filer who is an attorney admitted to the New York Bar need only register with NYSCEF once in order to use the system in multiple matters, including cases in
Supreme Court or the Court of Claims. A self-represented person or an attorney admitted pro hac vice may register as a NYSCEF filer only for an individual matter. An attorney who does not wish to file and serve documents personally may authorize another, such as a paralegal, to do so on the attorney s behalf using the attorney s ID and password, or the attorney may authorize an attorney s service enterprise to file on the attorney s behalf under the ID and password of a staff member of that enterprise. For the latter situation, a form of statement of authorization is available on the website. The NYSCEF system is divided into two sectors: the Live System and the Practice System. Each System requires a unique ID and password, applied for in the same way. Separate IDs and passwords ensure that users who are seeking to practice with the NYSCEF software do not inadvertently enter the Live System of real proceedings. III. CONSENT AND COMMENCING USE OF NYSCEF Use of NYSCEF is voluntary. Surrogate s Court proceedings can be processed as NYSCEF matters only if all parties to the proceeding agree, or only to the extent that parties give consent. If some, but fewer than all, parties consent, the consenting parties can file documents with the Court and serve one another electronically through NYSCEF, but they must serve paper copies on parties who have not consented. Service to obtain jurisdiction over a person in a proceeding shall be made by any of the methods authorized by the Surrogate s Court Procedure Act ( SCPA ).
A party who chooses to use NYSCEF in a particular proceeding must thereafter file, serve documents, and accept service of documents through NYSCEF unless that party gives notice to the Court and all other parties that he or she no longer wishes to participate electronically. The NYSCEF system may be used to open a new estate or to commence a new e- filed proceeding in an existing estate. Once an e-filed proceeding has been created, a user can e-file documents in that proceeding, record consent to participate electronically in that proceeding, request court-certified documents in that proceeding, or add AKA s for a decedent. IV. HOW CONSENT IS RECORDED A party or attorney for a party should consent to NYSCEF processing on-line (unless the particular court permits filing of consent in hard copy form (a consent form is available on the NYSCEF website)). The consenting party or attorney enters the NYSCEF system, identifies the party on behalf of whom consent is given and that party s role in the proceeding, completes an on-line form, and records consent in the system. A signed hard copy of the consent form may be maintained by the party or counsel. Consent to NYSCEF does not constitute an appearance or the filing of a Notice of Filing in the proceeding. V. SECURE STATUS OF E-FILED DOCUMENTS
Documents filed with the Surrogate s Court and served through NYSCEF are filed on an internet site. In Surrogate s e-filed proceedings, however, all documents filed with the site are automatically filed in Secure status. This means that the documents are accessible on the site only to consenting e-filers in the proceeding in which they were filed. Others cannot access the documents on-line outside the courthouse. VI. E-FILING DOCUMENTS AND PAYMENT OF FEES An eligible proceeding can be commenced through NYSCEF. Prior to the return date of the citation, a Court Notice Regarding Availability of E-Filing (posted on the website) shall be served on all other parties. If a document is e-filed that requires payment of a Court filing fee, the e-filer shall pay the fee through NYSCEF, by mail, or in person. Fees can be paid through NYSCEF using a credit or check card (bearing a Mastercard or Visa logo). NYSCEF provides a list of court fees under the SCPA. In the appropriate section of the NYSCEF program, the e- filer can authorize the charging of fees for the documents being e-filed. From time to time, the Court, as in hard-copy filings, may correct fee calculations. NYSCEF will provide the e-filer with a receipt for all fees paid and an identification of any modification made by the court. Documents can be sent to Surrogate s Court via NYSCEF at any time. A document is deemed to have been filed when transmission is complete and payment of any court filing fee due is received by the Court.
If the e-filer submits a petition for probate for which the court does not already have in its possession the original purported last will and testament and codicils, the e- filer shall, within two business days of the e-filing, file with the Court the paper original purported last will and testament and any codicils and a certified death certificate in hard copy. Generally, process shall not issue nor shall a fiduciary be appointed before such required filing. If the e-filer submits a petition for administration, the e-filer shall file a hard copy of a certified death certificate within two business days. Again, process shall not issue nor a fiduciary be appointed before such filing. When a document is e-filed under the Surrogate s E-Filing Rules, the official record of the document shall be the electronic record maintained by the court. VII. SIGNATURES A document that is e-filed shall be considered to have been signed by, and shall be binding upon, a person identified therein as a signatory if (a) it is e-filed under the ID and password of the e-filing signatory, or (b) it bears the signature of the signatory and is e- filed. An attorney or party who e-files such a document, or causes such a document to be e-filed represents that he or she possesses the executed hard copy of the document and that he/she shall make it available on request of the Court or any party. VIII. SERVICE
As mentioned, under the Rules, service of interlocutory documents can be made through NYSCEF. This occurs as follows. When an attorney or self-represented person registers as an e-filer, he or she must provide an e-mail address for purposes of service, which is referred to as the Primary Address. The registering filer may also provide additional e-mail addresses to permit additional notice to be made by NYSCEF to the filer or a person or persons designated by the filer, such as an associate, clerk or office manager. The Primary Address is the sole address through which e-service can be made on that attorney or party and that address can be changed only by contacting the Electronic Filing Resource Center. (A form to request a change of address is available on-line.) The additional addresses can be changed by the filer by entering the Modify Profile link at the top of any page of the website. When a document is transmitted to the NYSCEF site, the site immediately transmits electronic (e-mail) notification of the filing to all the Primary Addresses for that proceeding. The notification identifies the document and the names of the parties who are receiving that notification, and provides a link to the document. A record of this transmission is made in NYSCEF. Under the Rules, service through NYSCEF is complete on transmission of documents to NYSCEF. If an e-filing participant prefers, service can be made in hard copy in accordance with the traditional rules therefor. Proof of service should be posted on-line. Service on non-participating parties must be made as provided in the SCPA. The names of those parties will not be listed on the e-mail notifications just described.
IX. DOCUMENTS FILED BY THE COURT In electronically-filed cases, the court will file with NYSCEF decrees, judgments, orders and decisions. This e-filing will constitute filing of the decree, judgment, order or decision. Upon such filing, NYSCEF will transmit a notification to participating counsel and self-represented parties at their Primary Addresses. This notification does not constitute service of notice of filing by a party. X. ERRORS AND TECHNICAL FAILURES/ FILING NUNC PRO TUNC AND EXTENSIONS In the event that NYSCEF undergoes a technical failure that prevents it from accepting filings or providing access to the docket continuously or intermittently for more than one hour after 12 noon of any day, notice of the failure shall be posted on the site. A party may always file in hard copy if such a failure occurs. Beyond that, except as to deadlines that by law cannot be extended, the time for filing of any document the filing of which is delayed by such failure shall be extended for one day for each day in which such a failure occurs, unless otherwise ordered by the court. The Rules further provide that, if e-filing or e-service does not occur because of any of the following, the court may, on adequate proof, permit filing nunc pro tunc or may extend the date for service: an error in transmission to NYSCEF or a party that was
unknown to the sender; erroneous exclusion of a party from the service list; or other technical problems experienced by the e-filer. XI. FILE FORMAT FOR THE NYSCEF SYSTEM Documents transmitted for filing on the NYSCEF system will be accepted only if they have been created in the Portable Document Format ( PDF ), which is a standard format created through software licensed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and various commonly-used word processing programs. The Adobe software is widely available, and the Adobe Acrobat Reader, which permits the reading (but not writing) of PDF files, is available as a free download from the Adobe Systems homepage at the following address: www.adobe.com/products/reader/ An e-filer who wishes to transmit documents to NYSCEF must have the additional capability of creating PDF files. Most popular word processing programs (e.g.,word or WordPerfect) permit the user to convert documents directly into PDF format. Documents may also be created through dedicated software (Adobe Acrobat Writer and similar programs). Documents can be converted into PDF format through the use of a scanner. The result of the conversion of a document to a PDF is the storage of a file at a location on either the hard drive of the user s computer or a floppy disk drive. Once converted into PDF format, the file can be transmitted to the court for filing through NYSCEF while the e-filer is logged on. At the time of filing, the NYSCEF software
allows the filer to browse his/her own disk drives to select and attach the proper file for transmission. Scanned PDF documents will take longer to upload than PDF documents created from word processors because documents created by the latter are coded more efficiently, resulting in smaller files. XII. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Part II of this Manual explains in detail how the NYSCEF software works in Surrogate s Court proceedings. Users who still have questions about the NYSCEF system are welcome to contact the NYSCEF E-Filing Resource Center (646-386-3033 or efile@courts.state.ny.us) for information and assistance. For information as to how traditional court procedures and requirements are applied in e-filed cases in Surrogate s Court, users should consult the Court in question for a Protocol on the subject or other material or information. 6/20/08