E-Filing

[marie9150]

I am in the State of Delaware and here everything has to be e-filed. Does anyone know how a common citizen goes about e-filing.

Thanks in advanced.

[tigergem]

Are you sure about that? It is my understanding that only attorneys can e-file. At least, that is true in my district. If ECF is mandatory and is limited to attorneys only, then pro se filers would be denied access to the judicial system. Maybe Delaware has opened it up to everybody? I don't know for sure. You should investigate their web site and call and ask procedural questions of the bankruptcy clerk.

http://www.deb.uscourts.gov/

The CM/ECF link is the PACER and filing link.

[marie9150]

Delaware is an e-file state. I have talked to a couple of lawyers who may be able to help me as I am a paralegal major, I just don't have access to e-filing just yet. Someone suggested that I go to legal aid and see if they will e-file for me. I'm not 100% sure what to do at this point.

[tigergem]

Um. Well. There is a great big link in the middle of that page that mentions something about assistance for individual filers. You might want to look into that.

[marie9150]

Thank I will definelty look into the information you provided.

[justbroke]

Pro Se debtors are always allowed to file papers... on paper. The e-File rule is only for attorneys and most creditors. It's not that your papers don't end up electronically filed, they just need to be scanned by the Intake part of the Clerk's Office.

I would absolutely love it for the Bankruptcy Courts to allow pro se debtors to have full access to CM/ECF so that we could docket our stuff directly. There is not one court that I have found that allows this. They do have limited CM/ECF access for creditors just to file claims, but that's it. (Well, some folks in the Trustee's office, without a bar number, do get access as well.) Everyone else gets "PACER" which is read-only.

The answer to your question could quite READILY be answered by calling the Clerk of the Court (or Intake) at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court District of Delaware (DEB). Ask a "procedural" question and ask only if "pro se debtors can file on paper".

I will be mortified if they say you must "find" some way to "file" electronically. That has all sorts of access issues and would severely limit and discourage pro se litigants.

[tigergem]

Supposedly they are going to open up ECF to everybody in the "surprisingly near future", and eventually make it mandatory for everybody. (Oh DARN, huh?) That is what one of my BK clerks told me. That got me thinking... if they make it mandatory across the board..."what about people without internet capability?" oops, eh? Well, I suppose there is always a way. Schools, libraries, whatever.

[justbroke]

The problem with opening it to everyone, is the same issue of training! There is a lot of training involved on how to docket things. If you open it up to everyone, you are going to get really bad docket entries, hearings scheduled wrong, and other general problems. I understand why it's restricted to attorneys now. At least they have a their appointment to practice before the USBC at stake.

I don't see CM/ECF ever opening up to "everyone" even pro se litigants, unless they go through the training and pass some sort of test. I don't know any "pro se" filer who knows what an "event list" is, or how to docket a hearing, and what the procedural requirements and timeline is for docketing a hearing. Or when something is a contested matter and requires a hearing, and something that does not.

They (the Court's that want to give just "everyone" CM/ECF access) are better off just having Pro Bono attorneys on payroll to help the pro se filers and submit the pro se filer's papers. The real problem comes when something really needs to be done timely, and a pro se filer has to "wait" for someone else to do it.

[HHM]

Pro se cannot e-file

Every attorney must attend a class before they are even allowed to access CM/ECF system. However, every attorney uses a software package that automates the process.

[tigergem]

I don't think the version for unlicensed people will have all those bells and whistles. I think they are going to redesign some aspect of it and dummy it down, or something. It seems to me that they were talking about simply an FTP document delivery means, probably all of the files going to the same intake people that handle the paper mail now.

Anyway, it was just a casual conversation, and this might very well have been the same BK clerk who told me (so sweetly) "We DO have successful Pro Se filers...".... only so I find out later, ummm.... not really, so much, eh?

[justbroke]

tiger... you said simple and "FTP" in the same sentence.

[tigergem]

tiger... you said simple and "FTP" in the same sentence.

Yeah. My bad?

[marie9150]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I don't have internet at home so I was a little long in replying. I'm still not sure how to go about this but I am still researching and waiting for a couple of paralegals and lawyers to get back to me. I will be taking a class this fall or next spring for e-filing but I don't think I can just do it myself.