Vol. 9, No. 11 December 2013
Service Interruption Possible
eFiling and other Clerk’s Office remote services may be temporarily offline on Saturday, December 7, 2013. Power disruptions are not expected but may occur as a result of planned construction activities in Phoenix. Any extended outage information will be posted through the Clerk’s Twitter feed, @MaricopaClerk on www.Twitter.com.
Lengthy Trial Fee
The $15 lengthy trial fee authorized by Arizona Revised Statute 12-115 will be repealed under the terms of the statute on December 31, 2013. To ensure all clerks of court are able to comply with the change at the same time in an operationally efficient manner, the Supreme Court issued Administrative Order 2013-98 directing that the clerks stop collecting the fee at the close of business on Friday, December 27, 2013. Filings after that date will be assessed the lower fee.
Temporary Relocation of Services at Southeast Juvenile
The Clerk’s Southeast Juvenile file counters and file counter-support in Mesa will be remodeled beginning December 9, 2013. Construction will be completed by March 2014. During construction, the Juvenile file counters and file counter-support will be relocated to the Southeast Adult facility located at 222 E. Javelina in Mesa. All payments and filings related to juvenile cases will need to be made at the Southeast Adult facility during construction. Thank you for your patience while these improvements are made.
Welcome and a Recap of 2013
The Brief welcomes new subscribers at any time. This year distribution has grown to individuals, law firms, schools, and associations such as bondsmen, process servers and runner services. This month’s edition provides a review of topics that were covered throughout the year. Back issues of The Brief are on the Clerk’s website at http://www.clerkofcourt.maricopa.gov/atty_news.asp.
eFiling in Family Court
Permissive eFiling of post-initiation family court documents in any family court case in the Superior Court in Maricopa County has been allowed all year and continues as a time and money saving option. Attorneys and self-represented parties can choose which documents to eFile after the case is initiated on paper. eFiling in family court cases is through the Clerk’s eFiling Online website, not AZTurboCourt. See the Clerk’s website for more information about eFiling: http://clerkofcourt.maricopa.gov/efiling/default.asp. The Family Court section of the eFiling Guidelines provide important information about format and what can and cannot be eFiled. Similar to depository box filings, eFilings that require payment of a fee must be paid at a Clerk’s facility or over the phone within one business day of eFiling or they will be rejected for non-payment and the original submission date and time will be lost. The Clerk’s Office celebrated 10 years of eFiling in 2013.
Minute Entries Online
Court rules were modified that limited access to minute entries online. Criminal case minute entries appear online unless the crime was a sex offense, had a juvenile victim, or met other restrictions defined in Supreme Court Rule 123. No minute entries are posted online in probate or juvenile cases and some family court minute entries do not appear online. Minute entries can be accessed at http://courtminutes.maricopa.gov/.
Formatting Cautions
Rules of procedure changed how foreign subpoenas are issued and Maricopa County local rules were changed to require the filing party to add language to their subpoenas regarding requests for accommodations and interpretive services. Filers were also reminded to ensure their documents leave a margin at the top of the page of at least two inches, as required by Civil Procedure Rule 10(d). The top left corner of eFiled proposed orders is where the Court’s granted or denied language is stamped. Several firms have their firm name or address occupying this part of the page, which distorts or covers the Court’s ruling.
Electronic Court Record
The Clerk’s Office expanded its repository of digital records to include all juvenile court case types. Since January 1, 2007, the electronic record has been designated the official record in the Superior Court in Maricopa County. The Office spent 2013 back-scanning older cases and has increased its electronic repository to over 44 million documents.
Acceptable Forms of Payment
The Clerk’s Office will make changes to the acceptable forms of payment after the first of the year. Law firms, attorneys, process servers and runner services account for the majority of the filing fees and services at the Clerk’s Office and those customers will not make a complete transition on January 1, 2014. What will be enforced on January 1 for all court customers, including law firms and attorneys, is payment by cash or wire transfer for posting non-criminal bonds in most situations, including performance bonds and appeal bonds. The public, including self-represented parties, will no longer be able to write personal checks for fees and services after January 1, 2014.
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