As lawyers know all too well, legal e-filing systems can be a headache to navigate. Without a standard across states or nationally, each court has its own setup, and these systems often come with clunky, confusing interfaces. It’s no wonder lawyers feel uneasy using them, worried about making mistakes and missing crucial filing deadlines.
This is where Clio File steps in, offering a user-friendly solution that takes the hassle out of e-filing, helping you avoid errors and stay on track with your submissions.
Here, we dive into the top five things you’ll need to know about e-filing court documents with Clio File and how this can improve processes, speed up timelines, and simplify your matter workload.
What is e-filing?
E-filing is the digital procedure by which legal professionals electronically submit case documents to courts, replacing traditional paper-based filing systems, streamlining the process, reducing costs, and allowing for faster updates on filing status.
A brief background on e-filing
Ten years ago, most lawyers filed paper documents with the courts by hand. However, as online document storage became increasingly common, the legal profession gradually shifted to paperless practices. Although many jurisdictions had implemented court e-filing systems before the pandemic, the need for social distancing significantly accelerated the adoption of e-filing, propelling the trend forward at a much faster pace.
With more and more courts making the leap to digitize their processes, there is still a gap in the connection between your firm’s practice management software and the courts. In addition, each court has its own e-filing software and filing requirements, making the process of e-filing cumbersome and complex. Clio File is focused on closing this gap, helping lawyers transition to a paperless practice, and improving efficiency across the legal landscape.
You might already be utilizing Clio Draft, helping you easily find court forms, draft legal documents, and manage court deadlines. Now, with the addition of Clio File, you can file those crucial documents from Clio Manage directly to the courts.
Here’s everything you’ll need to know about Clio File, the fastest, most efficient way to file:
1. File court documents faster
File and serve court documents electronically from the same place you manage your firm, with built-in compliance and security you can trust within Clio Manage. No more downloading and uploading documents into separate filing systems and switching between tools.
Clio File also enables you to drag and drop to upload, allowing you to upload documents that are stored outside of Clio to be e-filed, resulting in a hassle-free and efficient way to file.
2. Meet court deadlines without worry
Keeping up with varying rules from court to court can be a headache. Clio helps you stay on top of key court deadlines and requirements with our Court Rules feature, helping you ensure critical documents are submitted on time.
With Clio File, when the court accepts an e-filing, they will return a file-stamped copy that will be directly auto-synced and saved in your Clio Manage account. With everything filed in one easy-to-find location, you’ll no longer have to dig through piles of paperwork, saving you valuable time and ensuring crucial documents are managed automatically.
3. Track the status of your filings in real-time
When e-filing in Clio, you can monitor your filings in one place. This enables legal professionals to effortlessly manage e-filing workflows, expenses, and metrics within a unified location. E-filing with Clio eliminates the need to download and upload documents across different filing systems, completely streamlining the process.
By consolidating e-filing processes under one product and one subscription, Clio File simplifies vendor management for law firms to a single point of contact. This helps to eliminate the operational friction associated with using multiple EFSPs and EFMs across different courts, such as tedious contract and invoice administration.
Get real-time updates
When e-filing with Clio File, lawyers are able to communicate remotely with their clients, opposing parties, and the courts to get important documents delivered, accepted, and signed without needing a physical paper trail, and you’ll receive real-time updates on your documents the minute there’s an update.
- Real-time notifications: Get email notifications when filings are accepted or rejected.
- Status dashboard: Monitor and track all your court filings in one place and get real-time updates in your dashboard on their acceptance or rejection.
With this functionality, legal assistants, paralegals, lawyers, and any firm staff will gain real-time updates on document statuses and can automatically store court-filed copies with official stamps directly in Clio Manage.
4. Keep your litigation expenses simple
Client billing has never been easier, with Clio File’s automatic fee expensing. When e-filing with Clio, you’ll receive one invoice from a single provider and effortlessly bill clients for 100% of filing costs using automatic fee expensing.
Filing fees are automatically recorded as expenses, logged to the appropriate matter inside Clio Manage, and can be passed on to your clients. This makes it easy to recover the entirety of your costs and helps get you paid faster.
5. Streamline your document workflows from drafted to filed
Clio Draft makes it easy to search a library of fillable court forms for all 50 states and then auto-fill them with client and case information. And now, with integrated e-signature technology and Clio File, you can have those documents signed and sent back to you quickly so that they’re ready to be e-filed to the court.
Law firms are recovering time that used to be spent on these routine tasks by eliminating the need to search for specific forms and then manually fill in all of the client’s information. Lawyers, paralegals, law assistants, and all firm staff can now focus on other areas such as client intake, research, client communications, or law firm marketing strategies.
The tools you need to get started—right within Clio
If you’re already using Clio Manage, you’ll automatically gain access to Clio File upon purchase, without the hassle of additional apps, websites, or logins! Upon activating Clio File, both tools will be conveniently billed together on a single invoice—one product, one subscription.
Learn more about Clio Manage here.
An e-filing solution your firm can trust
Built into Clio’s secure, unified platform, Clio File is built to help your firm file efficiently. Simplify compliance and security with an industry-leading partner certified to the highest standards, while saving valuable time and energy on routine e-filing tasks.
With Clio, you’ll receive exceptional customer care from the most experienced team in the industry. We’re committed to your success! We have a dedicated support team available 24/5 via email, live chat, and phone, ready to assist with any inquiries you may have.
Clio File is currently available in Texas, with more states on the way! If you’re in Texas, sign up now, or sign up to be notified when Clio File arrives in your state.
We published this blog post in July 2024. Last updated: .
Categorized in:
Clio, Technology
