Rule 13.1 - Electronic Filing and Electronic SignaturesA. Internet electronic filings.1. The clerk of courts of each county within the jurisdiction of the Seventh District Court of Appeals is authorized to prepare and maintain operating procedures and instructions for electronic court filing ("e-filing").2. For purposes of this rule, e-filing refers to the automated transmission of legal documents from litigants to a court via the internet, and does not include fax (facsimile) filings or email filings.3. Where an e-filing system is available for use by the clerk of court, pleadings and other papers, including the notice of appeal, may be filed with the clerk of court electronically via the internet subject to the following conditions: a. Application of rules and orders. All rules of procedure, local rules, and court orders shall continue to apply to documents electronically filed. Documents submitted for e-filing must be in a digitized format specified by the clerk of courts.b. Leave to file in paper form. When electronic filing is mandatory pursuant to another rule of court or rule of procedure, an attorney wishing to file a specific document or all documents in a given case in paper form may file a motion requesting leave to do so. Such motion may itself be filed in paper form and shall set forth the exceptional circumstances justifying the request.c. Filings not accepted. An appointed counsel's application for attorney fees will not be accepted for electronic filing.d. Self-represented filings. Parties not represented by counsel are not required to utilize an e-filing system and may file documents in paper form.e. Paper form documents. i. Documents filed in paper form shall be scanned and uploaded to the efiling system by the clerk of court if possible.ii. Documents filed under seal shall not be filed electronically, nor shall they be scanned by the clerk into an electronic or digital format. The clerk shall maintain all documents filed under seal in paper form only.f. Electronic file stamp. Upon successful completion of acceptance processing by the respective clerk of courts, a document filed electronically will be electronically file-stamped. This stamp will include the date and time that the receiving device of the clerk of courts received the entire transmission. A document filed electronically that is not successfully processed by the clerk of courts will not receive an electronic file stamp, but the filer will receive a rejection e-mail.g. Time for Filing. i. If a clerk of court accepts electronic filings, an electronic filing may be submitted to the clerk twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week for review. However, the e-filing rules for the respective clerk of courts shall determine the date and time for acceptance of the filing and corresponding time-stamp. This does not in any way alter the provision in App.R. 14(A) that filing deadlines that fall on a Saturday, a Sunday, or a legal holiday run until the end of the following day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday.ii. Time at this court (Eastern Standard Time or Eastern Daylight Saving Time) governs, rather than the time zone from which the filing is made.h. Any document filed electronically that requires a filing fee may be rejected by the clerk of courts unless the filer has complied with the mechanism established by the Clerk of Court and/or the Court for the payment of filing fees.i. System or User Filing Errors: If a party attempts to file a document electronically and the document is not accepted for filing because of an error in the transmission of the document to the electronic filing system, the Court may, upon satisfactory proof, enter an order permitting the document to be filed nunc pro tunc to the date it was sent electronically.j. Service: Service of documents filed electronically shall be accomplished in the manner prescribed by the appellate rules. See App.R. 3 and 13.k. Time to Respond or Act: Whenever a time period is measured from the time after a document is filed, the time will be measured from the date the electronically filed document is deemed to have been filed.l. Disposition and Maintenance of Source Documents.i. The person filing a document electronically shall maintain an exact copy of the source document upon which the electronic filing was based, either in an unalterable electronic format or on paper.ii. The filing person shall retain this source document until final disposition of the case and through any appeal period. The filing person shall make the source document or a facsimile thereof available for production at the request of the Court, the clerk, other counsel or parties representing themselves.B. Signatures of Parties and Counsel.1. The signature of an attorney or a party on a document that is filed electronically shall be represented with a conformed signature of "/s/ [name]." The conformed signature on an electronically filed document is a legal signature for purposes of the signature requirements of the civil and criminal rules of procedure, the rules of superintendence, and any other law, and will be considered the signature of the person it purports to be for all purposes. See App.R. 13(A)(1).2. Multiple Signatures. When a stipulation or other document requires two or more signatures, the filing party or attorney will confirm in writing that the contents of the document are acceptable to all persons required to sign the document. The filer will indicate the agreement of all necessary parties at the appropriate place in the document, usually, the signature line(s). If it is established that the documents were transmitted without authority, this Court shall order the filing stricken.3. Signature of Third Parties. Documents containing signatures of third parties, including signatures of notaries public, shall be scanned as an image and filed electronically.