Lubbock County District Courts Electronic Filing Rules

Electronic filings are transmitted through an EFSP and then TexasOnline to the district or county clerk, and the filer must maintain valid EFSP and TexasOnline accounts.

Filers do not electronically file documents directly with the district clerk or county clerk. Rather, filers indirectly file a document with the district clerk or county clerk by electronically transmitting the document to an electronic filing service provider (EFSP) which then electronically transmits the document to TexasOnline which then electronically transmits the document to the district clerk or county clerk. A filer filing or serving a document must have a valid account with an EFSP and with TexasOnline

Electronic filing of court documents is optional unless a District Court or County Court orders it for a particular case upon a party's motion and a showing of good cause.

(a) Except as provided by subsection (b) below, the electronic filing and serving of court documents is wholly optional. (b) Upon the motion of a party and for good cause shown, a District Court or County Court may order the parties in a particular case to electronically file and serve court documents that are permitted to be electronically filed under Rule 3.3.

Applies to

Documents filed in traditional manner

Documents that may traditionally be filed with the district or county clerk may generally be filed electronically, subject to specified exceptions.

A document that can be filed in a traditional manner with the district clerk or county clerk may be electronically filed with the exception of the following documents:

Applies to

Motion to seal

A motion to seal a document and any response to that motion may be filed electronically.

A motion to have a document sealed, as well as any response to such a motion, may be electronically filed.

A filer must follow TexasOnline's registration procedures to register for electronic filing.

To become registered to electronically file documents, filers must follow registration procedures outlined by TexasOnline.

Applies to

Electronically filed document

Each electronic filer must use the confidential identifier issued upon registration, and that use constitutes a digital signature.

(a) Upon completion of the initial registration procedures, each filer will be issued a confidential and unique electronic identifier. Each filer must use his or her identifier in order to electronically file documents. Use of the identifier to electronically file documents constitutes a “digital signature” on the particular document.

Applies to

Electronically filed document

The clerk must accept a document that is correctly addressed and satisfies all filing requirements.

The district clerk or county clerk shall accept the document for filing provided that the document is not misdirected and complies with all filing requirements.

A filer generally may include only one document in each electronic transmission to TexasOnline.

Except as provided by subsection (b) below, a filer may include only one document in an electronic transmission to TexasOnline.

Lubbock County must comply with all electronic filing rules, statutes, and other applicable requirements governing electronic filing.

A.1. Lubbock County shall adhere to all electronic filing rules or, any other rule or statute governing electronic filing.

Applies to

Affidavit or attached paper

An affidavit or other covered paper attached to an electronically filed document may be scanned and filed electronically with the underlying document.

Any affidavit or other paper described in Rule 3.4(a) or (b) that is to be attached to an electronically-filed document may be scanned and electronically filed along with the underlying document.

TexasOnline must forward filed documents to the clerk and warn the EFSP when a document is improperly formatted.

(d) Upon receiving a document from a filer's EFSP, TexasOnline shall electronically transmit the document to the district clerk or county clerk. If the document was not properly formatted, Texas Online will transmit a warning to the filer's EFSP.

Paper copies of electronically filed documents are not required unless another law or rule requires them.

B.1. Unless otherwise required by law or rule, paper copies of electronically filed documents are not required.

The County and District Clerk may designate an electronically filed document or a scanned paper document as the official court record.

B.2. As provided by the Tex. R. Civ. P. 21(f)(13), the County and District Clerk may designate an electronically filed document or a scanned paper document as the official court record.

Upon a judge's request, the clerk must provide a paper copy of all documents electronically filed or stored by the clerk.

The clerk, however, upon request by a judge, shall provide a paper copy of all documents electronically filed or stored by the clerk.

A document may be electronically transmitted with another document as an attachment.

A filer may electronically transmit a document to TexasOnline that includes another document as an attachment (e.g., a motion to which is attached a brief in support of the motion).

A case file may contain both electronically filed and traditionally filed documents.

The district clerk's file or county clerk's file for a particular case may contain a combination of electronically-filed documents and traditionally-filed documents.