Troubleshooting: E-Filing in Cook County

We started e-filing in Cook County on Monday, July 2nd, and it has been a rough transition. While the court clerks iron out the kinks with the e-filing manager, here is I have learned so far.

General Information. The Filer (person logged into the system and completing the e-filing) is the ONLY person who will receive notifications that the filing was “submitted,” “accepted,” or “rejected/needs correction.”

If staff logs in using attorney’s credentials to e-file, ONLY the attorney will receive a rejection notification. Staff IS allowed to log in under their own credentials and e-file on behalf of an attorney.

There is no option to add a contact to receive rejection notifications. Most law firms are creating email auto-forward rules in Outlook so that any email that comes in from [email protected] or [email protected] will get automatically forwarded to an email address that YOU designate. That email address would then receive all notifications: submitted, accepted, and/or rejected/needs correction.

Alternatively, you can continue to log into the e-filing platform, look at the Firm’s Filing History, and check the status of the filings to see if any have been rejected.

Case Numbers. Enter your case number in the correct format (four digit year then capital letters for the Division, and the full case number) -no spaces, no dashes.

Chancery cases = 5 digits (2018CH12345)

Law Division cases = 6 digits (2018L123456)

The exception are case numbers for Municipal Court cases. Leave out the “M” when inputting your case number. If your case number is 2018 M1 000123, search for your case as  20181000123 or try the case number as 181000123. If you have fewer than six digits, include leading zeros. The case number should not be more than six digits following the District Code (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6).

If you have entered the correct case number entered in the correct format, but the system still does not find the case, be sure to delete your browser history and then log in to the system again. If that does not work, call the Division that you are filing into. It is a known issue (as of 7/6/2018) that some case numbers are not coming up.

Attorney Firm Code. You MUST add your firm ID number in the “Case Cross Reference Number” section for EVERY filing or your filing will be rejected.

Make sure you complete all three steps:

1. Type in your Attorney Firm Code in the “Case Cross Reference Number” box

2. In the “Case Cross Reference Type” drop down, select “Cook County Attorney Code”

3. Click on the plus sign to “Add Case Cross Reference Number” and Save Changes.

*There may be a technical glitch right now with the e-filing manager’s system. Apparently the court clerks do not see the Attorney Firm Code even though you complete all 3 steps as listed above. Abundance of caution – also enter your Attorney Firm Code in the “Comments to the Court” field to tell the court clerk you are entering the number in both places.

If you are filing a motion in a Domestic Relations, Probate, or Chancery Division case AND you need to schedule a motion hearing date complete the three steps:

(AFTER you have entered your Attorney Firm Code in the “Case Cross Reference Number” box)

1. Type the word “Motion” in the “Case Cross Reference Number” box

2. Select the type of motion you are filing from the drop down

3. Click on the plus sign to “Add Case Cross Reference Number” and Save Changes.

Motion dates CANNOT be scheduled unless these steps are taken.

*Check to make sure you have two lines of information in this “Case Cross Reference Number” section IF you are filing a Motion in Domestic Relations, Probate, or Chancery Division. You should have: 1. Attorney Code AND 2. the word Motion

Filings Section.

Each court has specific requirements for Filing Code based on the court location, case category, and case type you are filing into.

Tyler Technology’s technical support (the e-filing manager) is not able to help with the filing codes, case type, or category.

If you are unsure of which selection to make, you will need to contact the court clerk of the Division (e.g. Chancery, Law, Probate) that you're filing into for further instructions.

*Filing Code for Motion for Summary Judgment is “Motion Filed”

Remember – email addresses entered in the “Courtesy Copies” field only receive ACCEPTED notifications. Tyler Technology’s help desk reports that the Courtesy Copy notifications are NOT A GUARANTEE.

Service of Filings-filing into an existing case. Select Filing Type as “EFileandServe.” The only attorneys that will be served are YOUR firm attorneys.

Select EFileandServe and upload your document to be filed. The next section that pops up is the Service Contacts section. You receive a message “Please select at least one service contact for service” and “Only contacts checked below will be served electronically.

Click on your Plaintiff or Defendant (whichever party YOU represent). If you represent multiple Plaintiffs/Defendants, you only select one. Select your first/lead Plaintiff or Defendant. This is a Tyler Technology system limitation.

If there are so many Plaintiffs or Defendants listed that you cannot even see ONE that your attorney or law firm represents, contact the court clerk of the Division that you are filing into (e.g. Law, Chancery) for guidance.

Click on your party. If your attorney is not listed, add them as a Service Contact by clicking on the “Actions” drop down box at the right. Again, you can ONLY add YOUR attorneys at this time. 

Go to Actions and you get a drop-down box with only two options:

1. Add from Firm Service Contacts  (which is a list of all attorneys in YOUR firm that are registered to e-file)

2. Add From Public List (As of 6/29/2018, Tyler Technologies has confirmed that the Public List feature is TURNED OFF and has NOT been made available by the State of Illinois. It does NOT work at this point in time.)

When your filing gets accepted, the efileIL manager system will send out the acceptance notice to YOUR attorneys that you designated/selected in the Service Contacts section.

You can only add YOUR attorneys – you cannot add any opposing counsel. They are supposed to add themselves when they e-file.

If you did not see opposing counsel listed in the Service Contacts section, they will NOT receive any notice that you filed something.  YOU must serve them. The eFileIL manager system will NOT send them notice of the filing.

BEST PRACTICES TIP – FIRM SERVICE CONTACTS

Be sure that your administrator adds the email addresses of anyone who needs to receive notification of e-filings (e.g. paralegal, docket clerk, legal assistant) to the attorney.

Go to Actions > Firm Service Contacts

You will see a list of all attorneys registered to e-file in your firm.

Select/highlight an attorney name, scroll down and you will see the detail information for that attorney (firm name, address, email address).

There is a section called “Administrative Copy”.

If you want to receive notification of any and all filings that a certain attorney receives, here is where you would enter your email address. Multiple email addresses should be separated by a comma.

Motion Hearing Dates. After you upload your documents, click on “Summary.” Review what you are filing and click “Submit”.

The hearing date calendar will pop up once the filing is submitted, and ONLY if that function was configured for that case type and that court.

The return date will only be available on case types that are configured to have a return date (like you need a Summons issued), otherwise it will show under Not Applicable.

*Note that Illinois Supreme Court Rule 101(b) was amended and is effective July 1, 2018. Please review for calculation of appearance dates and other return dates.

**In the Civil Division and Law Division cases, the hearing box seems to always pop up. ONLY select a date if you need a hearing date.

If you DO NOT need a hearing date, just select not applicable.

***Information on Asbestos Motion calendar J1 - You DO NOT need to type in the word "motion" in the Case Cross Reference Number field. Go through the e-filing procedure. After you click "Submit" the motion calendar will pop up and you can select your hearing date.