Opinion
2:22-cv-01163-MTL-CDB
08-22-2014
In the matter of: ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF PRISONER DOCUMENTS PILOT PROJECT SUPERSEDES GENERAL ORDER 14-14
GENERAL ORDER 14-17
Raner C. Collins, Chief United States District Judge
The Court and the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) have agreed to extend the following pilot project designed to reduce the cost of processing prisoner filings.
1. The Court will provide five digital senders for use in the five units of the ADC Eyman Complex: Cook, Meadows, Rynning, Browning, and SMU I. The Court will retain ownership of the digital senders.
2. ADC will provide scanners for use in six designated units of the ADC Lewis Complex: Bachman, Barchey, Buckley, Morey, Rast, and Stiner.
3. Eyman and Lewis Complex staff will scan to PDF and, after quality review, email to the Court all documents presented by prisoners for filing with the Court. The original documents will be returned to the prisoner. All documents submitted for filing by prisoners in the Eyman Complex and in the six designated units of the Lewis Complex must be emailed to the Court in a PDF format. Sealed cases are exempt from this pilot project.
4. The Court will receive and file the prisoners' documents electronically. After traditional service of the prisoner's complaint or petition and appearance by an
opposing party, transmission of the Notice of Electronic Filing (NEF) to opposing parties who are Electronic Case Filing Registered Users constitutes service of the hyperlinked document for purposes of Rule 5(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Clerk of Court will mail a copy of the prisoner's electronically filed document to Nonregistered Users.
5. The Eyman Complex Units and the designated Lewis Complex Units will each establish an email address for receipt of NEFs of documents filed electronically. Staff in these Units will print the NEFs and the hyperlinked orders and other documents filed by the Court. Receipt of copies of the NEFs and hyperlinked documents by the prisoner constitutes service of the document on the prisoner. If the prisoner refuses delivery or is no longer at the designated Unit, Unit staff will indicate the reason for non-delivery on the NEF and email it to the Court.
6. Opposing parties must serve filings on Eyman and Lewis prisoners by means other than electronic filing as provided in Rule 5.5(h) of the Local Rules of Civil Procedure and Rule 5 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Eyman and Lewis staff will not provide to prisoners NEFs or the hyperlinked documents filed by opposing parties.
7. The Court or ADC may terminate the pilot project at any time. The Court and ADC must periodically evaluate the pilot project and determine whether it should be continued, terminated, modified or expanded.
This General Order supersedes General Order 14-14.
E-Filing Instructions (Updated 9/17/15)
Under General Order 14-17 you are required to participate in the Prisoner Electronic Filing Program. In order to avoid delays in the processing of your documents, please follow the below guidance.
1. Only documents intended for filing in your U.S. District Court case should be submitted to the librarian for scanning. All other documents will be returned, untiled, to the librarian.
2. Documents intended for courts other than the U.S. District Court must not be submitted to the librarian for scanning. These documents must be mailed to the appropriate court. These documents will be returned, untiled, to the librarian.
3. Correspondence should be mailed to the court. Documents submitted electronically which appear to be correspondence will be returned, unprocessed, to the librarian.
4. You must include your complete case number on your documents in the following format: CV-13-0000-PHX or CV-13-0000-TUC. Documents without a case number which are not new cases will be returned, unfiled, to the librarian.
If you are submitting more than one new case, each case must be clearly labeled or the documents will be considered one case.
5. Documents must be dark enough to be legible after the scanning process. If possible, use a dark ink pen. If an ink pen is not available, write as dark as possible with a pencil. Darken all areas of carbon copy forms that may not be legible. Documents will NOT be reviewed for legibility. Your case will be delayed if the presiding judge is unable to read the documents.
6. If you are submitting multiple documents, they must be given to the librarian as separate documents. Documents scanned together will be electronically filed as one document.
7. Each page of every document must be clearly numbered in the order you wish to have them scanned. Oversized documents should be submitted to the librarian in 50 page increments and must be clearly labeled, 1 of__. Begin page numbers anew with each separate document.
8. The certificate of service should be the last page of your document. If it is filed separately without a case number it will be returned, unfiled, to the librarian.
9. The notice of electronic filing (NEF) from the Court will include the number of pages filed.
10. Do not submit two-sided documents.
11. Do not submit copies of cases or prison policies. The Court has access to them, so you only need to cite them.