Practice
Direction No. 54
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Pilot E-Filing Project
Submission
of a specified document to the court
Endorsements
on specified documents
Documents
incapable of conversion to electronic form
Lodgement
and service of documents
File
inspection and procurement of paper copies of documents
Amendment
of specified documents
Copy
documents for use by the trial judge
Court e-mail addresses and facsimile
numbers
1. The provisions of this Practice Direction
apply only to actions conducted pursuant to the pilot e-filing project
commissioned by the Court (“the pilot e-filing project”).
2. The pilot e-filing project will commence
on the 11th day of July 2005 ("the pilot commencement
date"), utilising the existing Civil Case Management System
(CCMS).
3. The pilot e-filing project is a Web-based
system which will enable practitioners, who register as users, by completing the
appropriate template through the web site (and thereby commit themselves to
payment of court fees by credit card or direct debit arrangements), to initiate
new proceedings in electronic form.
4. Only practitioners may become registered
users. There is no present limit on the number of practitioners who may
register as users of the Web-based system. The only requirement, apart from
making the necessary fiscal arrangements, is that practitioners have facilities
which will enable them to access the CAA web site.
5. (1) All
applications for registration must be made in relation to the L Code of the
applicant and must nominate the P Code of each practitioner who is to be an
authorised agent of the proposed registered user.
(2) Before operating within the EFS each such
authorised agent will also be required to input a separate alpha/numeric password
(consisting of not less than eight characters, one of which must be numeric,
and not more than 20 characters) as a personal authorised electronic
authentication code (AEAC) in respect of the P Code of that practitioner.
(3) It is the obligation of each registered user
(the L Code holder), forthwith, to inform the CAA, through The Law Society by
such means as the Registrar may from time to time direct, of any change in the
particulars contained in the application to become a registered user and, specifically,
of any change in the details of authorised agents (the P Code holders) who may
operate on their account.
(4) Until receipt of notice of revocation of the
nomination of a person as an authorised agent, such person shall be deemed to
continue as the authorised agent of the registered user, who shall be bound by
and responsible to the Court for the actions of the authorised agent (See SCR
1A.14 (3)).
(5) All transactions on the EFS on behalf of a
registered user shall be initiated by an authorised agent, by the input of both
the P Code and AEAC of that person. Such input will, for all purposes,
conclusively establish the relevant authorised agent as the initiator of the
transaction.
6. (1) Where
an action is commenced by a registered user in electronic form:
(a) the
primary record of that file shall be in electronic form;
(b) all
documents thereafter filed in the matter, by any party, shall, subject to the
Rules and the provisions of this Practice Direction, be in electronic format;
(c) to the
maximum extent possible, matters will be dealt with "on-screen" and
with production of only the minimum amount of hardcopy material required;
(d) the
primary method of communication by registered practitioners with the Courts is
to be through the CAA web site, in a manner conforming to technical standards
from time to time promulgated by the Courts;
(e) the reasonable requirements of litigants in
person (including handicapped or disabled persons) and others not having the technical
capacity of dealing with the Court electronically will be met by provision of
appropriate registry counter facilities suitable for the needs of those
concerned;
(f) the input of documents into the electronic
filing system developed by the Courts (“the EFS”) shall be by completing a
template accessed through the CAA web site by registered users or uploading
data to the CAA web site; and
(g) documents
shall be transferred into the Courts system on a daily batch basis.
7. Where it
is impractical for a party, or the legal representative of the party, to become
a registered user, any document to be filed by the party or his or her legal
representative shall be in electronic format on diskette and brought to the
registry for uploading, or shall be scanned into the electronic file at the
registry from a hardcopy suitable for that purpose.
8. (1) Upon
presentation of the first document for electronic filing in proceedings by a
person who is not a registered user, the Registrar shall cause such person to
be allocated a unique, computer generated Personal Identification Number (PIN),
and shall require that person to input into the EFS a separate, confidential
alpha/numeric password (consisting of not less than eight characters, one of
which must be numeric, and not more than 20 characters) as a personal
authorised electronic authentication code (AEAC) in respect of the allocated PIN.
(2) No document may be filed by such person in
the proceedings unless it is first authenticated by that person typing in his
or her PIN, together with the last mentioned AEAC. Where more than one document
is filed on the same occasion it shall only be necessary for the person to
provide authentication once in respect of all the transactions.
(3) By so authenticating the document the person
in question warrants that he or she has personally viewed the document on screen,
is satisfied that it has been uploaded in the form desired and authorises the
filing of it in that form.
(4) Upon release into the EFS, a document so
authenticated shall be capable of read only access and may not thereafter be
capable of alteration. It may, however, be withdrawn by the party
authenticating it by leave of the Court. Any amendment of an authenticated
document may only be made in the manner prescribed by SCR 53.02.
(5) Documents presented by a non-registered user
at the Registry in electronic form for filing must comply with the following
technical requirements:–
(a) The
documents must be stored in the following types of portable media:–
(i) 1.44 Mb
3 1/2 inch floppy diskettes
(ii) CD-ROM
(b) The
electronic format of the documents must be: –
(i) Microsoft
Word 98
(ii) Microsoft
Word 2000
(iii) PDF
(iv) TIFF
(except files using LZW compression)
(c) The
portable media submitted must be labelled with the name of the person
presenting them and the file names of the documents contained therein. Unnamed
or illegibly named diskettes or other media will be rejected by the Registry.
(d) Each set
of portable media given to the Registry must contain only the documents
included in the submission.
(e) The
non-registered user must warrant to the Registry that any portable media
presented are virus free and all relevant files are otherwise free of
corruption.
(f) The
portable media submitted will be returned to the person filing when the
contents have been processed into the EFS.
(g) Bills of
costs shall be submitted in a spreadsheet format, approved by the Registrar.
9. All AEACs shall conform to the technical
requirements specified from time to time by the Registrar.
10. The pilot e-filing project may, as from the
pilot commencement date, be accessed through the CAA web site at www.courts.sa.gov.au. To effect access, the cursor should be
positioned on "e lodgement" under the subheading "Courts".
11. Principles, guidelines and standards are set
out in Annexure A.
Submission of a
specified document to the court
12. For the purposes of SCR1A, ‘specified
document’ means:
·
summons
·
notice of address for
service
·
application
·
pleadings
·
praecipe and subpoena
·
copy documents for use
of the trial judge
·
orders, judgments and
minutes thereof
·
notice of appeal
·
outline of submissions
·
list of documents
·
chronology
·
interrogatories
·
notice to admit and
response thereto
·
statement of loss
·
bill of costs
·
any other document required
by the Rules of Court to be filed in the proceedings.
13. (1) Specified
documents and affidavits may be submitted by or on behalf of a registered user
to the Court using the EFS at any time on any day on which the EFS is
operational. In the case of specified
documents attracting payment of a fee, filing will not be processed other than
between 9.00am and 4.30pm Monday–Friday, until further notice.
(2) Specified
documents on diskette or in hardcopy and affidavits to be filed by a
non-registered user may only be presented during hours in which the registry is
normally open for business, unless the Registrar shall otherwise direct in a
particular case.
14. (1) Subject
to the provisions of Rule 3.07(2), all specified documents proposed to be filed
through or presented at the Registry for entry into the EFS shall be in the
form prescribed by the First Schedule to the Supreme Court Rules ("the
First Schedule"), with the modifications specified in this paragraph.
(2) All specified documents, including the first
page of the document shall, as far as possible, be and print out in hard copy
in A4 size.
(3) Paragraph numbering of each document in a
filing should be sequential, commencing with “1” in each instance.
(4) The layout of the first page should conform
to Form 1 of the First Schedule. The first page of the document must contain
the following details:–
(a) the P Code of the authorised agent of the
registered user, or the personal identification number (PIN) allocated to the
filing party, where that party is not a registered user;
(b) the
e-mail address of the person submitting the document;
(c) the
facsimile address of such person;
(d) the
telephone contact number of such person; and
(e) the
postal and DX address of that person.
(5) Provision is to be made for a field on the
top of the first page of each document submitted, in which the sequential
identification number of the document within a file (“the file document number”
or “FDN”) may be inserted.
(6) The title or description of each document,
as appearing on the first page of it, shall be reproduced at the top of each
subsequent page. Where relevant, it shall (as appropriate) include reference to
the party making it, or on behalf of whom it is to be filed.
(7) The EFS will
ultimately contain electronic templates for all forms in the First Schedule.
These may be used for document data input purposes. In the short term, not all
templates will be available. Where a
specific template is not currently available, Form 45 should be utilised for
input purposes. Provided that a
practitioner’s practice management system can supply data in a format conforming
with LegalXML, it will be possible for data to be loaded direct from such
system into the EFS using the bulk lodgement facility, as alternative to keying
in such data in to the electronic templates.
Endorsements
on specified documents
15. Where it is necessary, in conformity with
the Rules or a direction of the Court, to include endorsements on any specified
document: –
(1) If an endorsement
can be made prior to the filing or issue of the document, that endorsement
shall be incorporated into the document before it is issued or filed.
(2) If an
endorsement must be made on a document which has already been filed or issued,
a fresh copy of that document containing the relevant endorsement shall be
prepared and the document must be re-filed or re-issued, as the case may be.
Documents
incapable of conversion to electronic form
16. In the case of documents which, in whole or
in part, cannot, for technical reasons, be directly converted into a readable
electronic form by scanning, the following directions shall apply: -
(1) The originals of any such document MUST
physically be lodged in the Registry.
(2) A copy of the entire document, including any
parts that can directly be converted into an electronic form and those that
cannot be so converted, must be produced in a form which is capable of being
effectively scanned. That copy is to be scanned in a format compatible with and
submitted through the EFS for filing. It is to be endorsed at the top “COPY OF
ORIGINAL LODGED IN REGISTRY”.
(3) An appropriate scanner will be available in
the Registry to meet the needs of any party who does not otherwise have reasonable
access to scanning facilities compatible with the EFS.
17. (1) The
Registrar may, at any time, request a party to supply the registry with hard
copies of any documents filed electronically.
(2) Upon such request the filing party or his or
her legal representative shall supply hard copies of the relevant documents
within such reasonable time frame as specified by the Registrar.
(3) The Registrar
may also direct that any or all specified documents in proceedings be filed in
hard copy, instead of using the EFS for such period or periods as the Registrar
may nominate.
18. Applications for the issue of subpoenas will
continue to be by way of praecipe (Form 25). A proposed subpoena and the
related praecipe will be submitted to the Registry through the EFS. If in
order, the subpoena will be authenticated electronically and then transmitted
electronically to the registered user requesting it. The registered user may
then print off hard copies for service. The praecipe will be filed separately
and allocated an FDN. A praecipe and subpoena may be submitted at the Registry,
by a person who is not a registered user, in hard copy capable of being
scanned. In such case the documents will be processed by Registry staff into
the EFS and the requisite number of hard copies of the subpoena will be printed
and supplied to the applicant for them.
Lodgement and
service of documents
19. (1) Upon
receipt of a specified document or an affidavit into CCMS, a computer generated
acknowledgment of such receipt and of the time and date thereof will be
transmitted to the party sending it, in accordance with SCR 1A.17 (3).
(2) The notification
of receipt referred to in (1) above will, as appropriate to the circumstances,
indicate the file and file document number, the date and time of filing and the
date and time allocated for any related hearing. A copy of such notification
shall be attached, by either electronic or manual means, to any copy of the
document before it is served on any party.
20. A party wishing to enter a judgment in
default of the filing of a notice of address for service or a defence may do so
by transmitting to the Registrar an e-mail request to enter such judgment,
together with a proposed form of judgment for settling in electronic form. Such
request shall identify those documents upon which the applicant relies as the
basis for the entry of judgment and, itself, be filed as a document in the
proceedings.
File inspection
and procurement of paper copies of documents
21. (1) Subject
to any specific direction by a Judge or Master and the development of the
technical facility to support such access, a registered user will be entitled
to read only access to any file on which that user has filed a document. The
user may also, subject to any such direction and development, download a paper
copy of any of the content of such file.
(2) A registered user may, by e-mail request to
the Registrar explaining the reason for it, seek read only access to any other specified
file. If the Registrar is satisfied that the request is in accordance with
section 131 of the Supreme Court Act or section 54 of the District Court Act
(as the case may be), access and the right to copy will be granted by such
means and subject to such conditions as the Registrar shall stipulate.
(3) Any other person may apply to the Registrar,
at the Registry, for permission to search a specified file. If the Registrar is
satisfied that such request is in accordance with section 131 of the Supreme
Court Act or section 54 of the District Court Act (as the case may be) approval
(or conditional approval) will be granted. Registry staff will, upon payment of
any prescribed fee, assign a personal computer and associated printer to the
inspecting party to enable the inspection to be carried out in accordance with
the terms of the approval.
(4) Certified true paper copies of documents
will be issued by the Registrar to any person who demonstrates a proper reason
for requesting them. Such issue may be by request, by electronic or paper
means, directed to the proper officer in the Registry.
(5) In the event that access to any document on
an electronic file may properly be restricted, such restriction shall be coded
on the relevant portion of the file, so as to prevent access in accordance with
that restriction.
(6) The foregoing
subparagraphs are to be read subject to (and are not intended to be in
extension of) the provisions of section 131 of the Supreme Court Act 1935 and
section 54 of the District Court Act 1991. They are subject to the terms of any
suppression order which may be made pursuant to Part VIII of the Evidence Act
1929.
Amendment of
specified documents
22. Attention is drawn to the provisions of SCR
53.02 which specify the method by which specified documents are to be amended.
Copy documents for use
by the trial judge
23. (1) Any
copy documents for use at a hearing (where required) and (where produced) all written
opening addresses or materials, outlines or submissions must be delivered to
the Court by transmission in electronic format through the EFS, or otherwise in
an electronic format medium, unless the Court shall otherwise direct in a
particular case. Facilities provided in the Registry may be utilised for that
purpose by non-registered users.
(2) The following directions are applicable to
all copy documents or other materials provided for the use of the trial Judge:–
(a) Index pages shall be prepared. However, it
will not be necessary to include the page number reference in the index.
(b) In
addition to such index pages, where the index refers to more than one document
within a single Portable Document Format (PDF) file in a bundle, a bookmark
should be created in that PDF file for each such reference in the index. There
should be as many bookmarks in that PDF file as there are references in the
index to documents in that PDF file.
(c) The bookmarking should be effected using the
bookmarking function provided in an approved program.
(d) The name given to each bookmark should be the
same as the corresponding reference in the index.
(e) If a
bundle of documents includes:
(i) more
than one PDF document;
(ii) a number of references to file document numbers
and also PDF documents; or
(iii) a
number of references to file document number,
then the
various PDF documents or file document number references, as the case may be,
should be arranged chronologically or in some logical order.
(f) The index
should act as a hyperlink to each document to which it refers.
24. (1) Unless
the presiding judicial officer otherwise directs, hearings involving affidavits
and specified documents, whether in open Court or in Chambers, will be
conducted in an electronic environment. This will be related to the progressive
equipping of courts to enable that to be done.
(2) Practitioners will be given appropriate read
only access to the electronic court file at the start of the hearing, by the
Judge or Master conducting the hearing.
(3) Practitioners should use the facility
provided to access and navigate around the relevant electronic case file. The
Judge or Master, and other counsel, should be referred to relevant documents
using the appropriate switching devices or links. Counsel may bring their paper
copies of documents to Court for their own reference, but these may not be
tendered to the Court, save as otherwise provided in this paragraph. If counsel
bring electronic copies of their documents, these may not normally be loaded
into the Court’s personal computer. Instead, these should be read using
counsel’s own notebook or other computer.
(4) In the event that a practitioner closes down
the computer access facility provided in the course of the hearing for any
reason, the legal practitioner in question may need to ask the Judge or Master
to give that person fresh access to the case file in question.
(5) At the end of the hearing, or if the hearing
is halted for any significant length of time, representatives of parties should
close down the access facility provided. This will prevent unauthorised access
to the electronic case file. If the facility is not closed down, it will be
possible for persons not involved in the case to peruse the documents contained
in the electronic case file.
(6) In the event that a practitioner wishes to
refer to case files other than those which have been fixed for hearing, the
practitioner should make a request to the Registrar for access to the case file
at least one clear day before the day fixed for the hearing.
(7) All affidavits
and specified documents for use at any hearing (including outlines and copy
authorities) should be filed, using the EFS, at least one clear day in advance
of the hearing. In the event that it is not reasonably possible to so file the
documents in advance of the hearing, counsel may apply to the Judge or Master
conducting the hearing for leave to use paper documents. Counsel will be
required to justify non compliance with the normal procedures envisaged by this
Practice Direction and will normally be asked to give an undertaking to file
all such documents in the EFS by the next working day after the hearing. Any
document not filed using the EFS will not be included in the Court’s case
record.
Court e-mail
addresses and facsimile numbers
25. The approved email addresses for the registries of the Courts
are:
Supreme
Court supreme.registry@courts.sa.gov.au
District
Court district.civil@courts.sa.gov.au
The
approved facsimile numbers for the registries of the Courts are:
Supreme
Court (08) 8212 7154
District Court (08)
8204 0544.
DATED this
1st day of July 2005
(Edie Bransbury)
REGISTRAR
SUPREME COURT