Breaking News:

The State Bar of Arizona CLE Department has just added a final training on AZTurboCourt for civil subsequent filing. It’ll be held Friday, September 9. More information and registration are here.

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Lawyers are deadline-driven. And this week, a big one approaches.

This Thursday, September 1, e-filing will be mandatory for most filings in the Arizona Superior Court in Maricopa County.

Civil cases must still be initiated on paper; but beginning Thursday, civil subsequent filings will no longer be accepted in paper form in that court (eFiling applies to general civil cases, not the subcategories of civil cases such as probate and family cases.). The rule went into effect months ago, but the Arizona Supreme Court’s Administrative Order 2011-87 removes the paper option this week.

To read the order, click here.

And for a well-written description of the process and answers to your likely questions, click here for a blog post by Michael Jeanes, clerk of the Superior Court of Maricopa County. (Kudos to the Maricopa County Bar Association for running his article.)

If all of your questions are answered and you’re ready to get started, click here. (Don’t wait until you have to file something to get registered, because the process may take more than one day to complete.)

I have heard some concern expressed about the thus-far lackluster use of e-filing by lawyers in Maricopa County. Apparently, since it has been available, AZTurbocourt has seen far fewer than the tens of thousands of filings that could have been made digitally. Some have wondered whether not enough was done to get the word out.

(Click here to read a roundtable we ran on the topic in Arizona Attorney Magazine back in 2009.)

My guess is that lawyers know the change is coming and will be required on September 1—so why adhere to a new regime when it is merely recommended and before it is mandatory?

Law practice is complex and difficult and time-consuming enough without adding recommended changes. I would imagine that as soon as the new requirement is in place, they will get on board. After all, lawyers understand deadlines—and Supreme Court rules.