procedural guides

Mandatory eFiling in Missouri Courts Continues

Beginning Monday, May 20th eFiling became mandatory for all cases filed in the Missouri Counties of Stoddard and Cape Girardeau.

Missouri began rolling out the first phase of its eFiling system in September 2011.  They carefully and successfully added a handful of courts during 2012, thus paving the way for adding 26 courts by the end of this year.

St. Charles County was one of the first courts to use the eFiling system and the response has been quite positive.  eFiling is far more efficient for lawyers, clerks and the public.

And while the transition has temporarily created more work for the court clerks, the St. Charles County clerks love the new system.  They are diligently checking and double checking every document to ensure that all files are properly added to the system.

eFiling also has financial benefits:  St. Charles County will be saving $225,000 a year in storage costs and the public will no longer pay copying fees as they can email files to themselves using the courts’ computers.

Mississippi and Scott Counties will begin eFiling on June 3rd, the City of St. Louis on July 8th, and Lawrence and McDonald Counties follow in August.

For the compete schedule, visit the Missouri Judicial Court website at http://www.courts.mo.gov/page.jsp?id=46524.  Further information can be found for each jurisdiction by clicking on its link in the implementation schedule.

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