TITLE TWO — COMMENCEMENT OF ACTION; SERVICE OF PROCESS, PLEADINGS, MOTIONS AND ORDERS
Rule 5.1. The Electronic Filing System; When a Paper Is Filed
The Electronic Filing System. “Electronic filing system” means the court’s electronic case management system operated at the court’s portal, through which cases are opened, documents are filed, fees are assessed, service is effected, and the docket is maintained. The electronic filing system serves the Superior Court and the Supreme Court alike; there is one system and no other.
Filing Defined as an Event. A filing is a submission event and not a paper. One filing carries:
One or more documents;
One filing code;
One electronic signature;
One fee; and
One status.
The filing, and not any document within it, is the unit on which status, signature, fee, service, and the clerk’s decision operate.
Tendered. “Tendered” means transmitted to the electronic filing system such that a filing record exists before all of the documents comprising the filing have been received. A tendered filing is recorded as Pending. A tendered filing is not filed.
Filed. “Filed” means that the electronic filing system has received every document comprising the filing, at which moment the filing is recorded as Submitted and bears the date and time of that receipt as its filing date. The filing date, once recorded, does not change.
Accepted for Filing. “Accepted for filing” means that the clerk has reviewed a filed submission and entered it upon the docket, at which moment the filing is recorded as Accepted. Acceptance does not alter the filing date.
Timeliness. An act required or permitted to be done by filing within a period is done within that period only if, before the period expires, the filing has attained the status of Submitted or Accepted. A filing that remains Pending at the expiration of the period has not been made within the period, whatever the time at which it was tendered. An abandoned or incomplete transmission is not a timely filing.
Failure of Transmission. Where documents were expected and never received, the electronic filing system records the filing as Upload Failed. Such a filing is not filed. A subsequent successful transmission of the missing documents returns the filing to review, and the filing bears as its filing date the date and time at which the last document was in fact received.
The Filing Code. Every filing bears one filing code, which states the machine-readable nature of the submission. The filing code, and not the filer’s label, title, or caption of any document, determines:
The character of the submission for every purpose for which the electronic filing system acts on it.
A filing whose documents do not answer to its filing code is a ground for rejection under Rule 5.3.
Same: Codes on Initiation. The filing code of an initiating filing is derived from the type of the case and is not chosen by the filer. The filing code of a subsequent filing is chosen by the filer from the codes the electronic filing system makes available.
Bates Number. Every filing bears a unique identifier assigned by the electronic filing system in the form BATES-YYYYMMDD-##########. The Bates number is per filing. It is not per page, it is not sequential, and the series is not gapless. Every reference in a paper, order, or judgment to a prior filing shall identify that filing by its Bates number.
Case Numbers. Every case bears a case number assigned by the electronic filing system in the form RSC- for a matter of the Superior Court and RSPC- for a matter of the Supreme Court. A case number encodes nothing about the order, date, or sequence in which cases were filed, and no rule, order, or judgment shall be construed to draw any inference from it.
Immutability of Documents. A document received by the electronic filing system is immutable.
A second transmission of a document already received does not replace it and has no effect on the record.
A filing that has been rejected receives no further documents.
A document that arrives after the filing has been accepted returns the filing to review, and the clerk shall decide the filing anew upon the complete set.
No document shall be altered, substituted, replaced, or removed after receipt.
A Filing Made Electronically Is a Written Paper. A document filed through the electronic filing system is a written paper for every purpose of these rules, and a signature transmitted with it under Rule 5.2 is a signature for every purpose of these rules.
No Lodging. There is no lodged, conditional, provisional, or under-advisement status. A case is upon the docket at the moment it is filed, and a filing is upon the docket at the moment it is accepted. Clerk review under Rule 5.3 is a review of a filing that is already in the record; it is not a condition precedent to the existence of the record.
Form of Documents. The number of documents comprising a filing is not limited. The size of a single document is limited as provided in Rule 10, which limit the electronic filing system enforces. Every other requirement of form is enforced only as provided in Rule 5(18) and Rule 5.3.