So apparently e-filing becomes mandatory at the Supreme Court on 9/12.

http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/miscdocket/11/11915200.pdf

Has anyone researched any of the providers

• American LegalNet, Inc.
• CaseFileXpress
• CourtFile America
• eLawServices
• MyFileRunner
• OneLegal
• ProDoc eFiling

My guess (after 5 minutes of glancing at the sites) is that ProDoc is the cheapest.

The previous
thread didn't have any answers yet.

I have heard great things about pro doc's filing service, and it appears to be the least expensive. I talked to Pro Doc, and discovered some issues. First, they must be paid by credit card--something that might be hard for some offices. Second--and more problematic--the Pro Doc rep said that the Texas courts have not implemented a method to allow State's lawyers (or those representing indigents, I figure) to file documents without paying the regular filing fee applicable to documents. Right now, the only appellate matters for which we pay a fee are some motions in TDFPS cases. Between the e-filing fee, and the still present postage for the hardcopies, I figured it was out of reach. If you tack on a bunch of other fees for extension motions and the like, I figured no way. That occasional $10 for TDFPS motions is real hard to choke out of the county coffers.

After 9/12 it looks like we'll have no choice but to pay for one of these services.

What I hate the most is having to pay an e-filing fee to file one of those waiver letters: "The Department will not file a response to the Petition for Review unless a response is requested by the Court." Shouldn't it be a given that a response will never be filed unless it's requested?

BTW, I'm pretty sure that the Department never owes a fee for appellate motions in TDFPS cases. See TEX. HUM. RES. CODE sec. 40.062("The Department is not required to pay any cost or fee otherwise imposed for court proceedings . . . ."). The Supreme Court doesn't charges us.

I may be mixing up TDFPS with Juvenile on the charge. But, the thing is, the efiling system can't distinguish you (filing on behalf of TDFPS) from Joe Blow filing on behalf of Acme Corp. According to the nice guy from ProDoc, if you efile, you have to pay any applicable filing fee of the court--there is just no option to do otherwise.

Luckily that's just that one court, and my unit files little there. FWIW, the I think it is a boondoggle that we have to pay a third party to efile and that it has taken so long to bring online. The federal courts implemented efiling long ago without third-parties imposing what amounts to a tax.

[This message was edited by JohnR on 08-24-11 at .]

The person I spoke with at ProDoc was Tom Schoolcraft. "[T]here are no short term plans to add a government filer/no court costs option for filing into the appellate courts."

tom{dot}schoolcraft{at}thomsonreuters{dot}com

210-582-2434

Ok, had a talk with the clerk of my main appellate court the other day, and she disagreed with the fellow from ProDoc. Hmmm. Too much to do to worry about this.

Just did my first e-filing at the Supreme Court.

Our business office went with CaseFileXpress.

Total cost of a Pet Response was about $14. Between fixing a mysterious blank page in the PDF and learning to e-file, it was more work than it should have been. Still, if it means never having to drive to the airport at 9:00 p.m. to find an open post office, e-filing could be a big improvement.

Another EFSP is US Legal Pro. US Legal Pro ( Free Texas Counties eFiling EFSP https://uslegalpro.com) offers completely free eFiling service to attorneys and Pro Se in Texas. It is gaining in popularity because it is on of the easiest service that you can find that mobile as well as Mac Friendly. Apparently a lot of attorneys use Mac and Ipad..