SOUTH CAROLINA E-FILING

E-filing has begun in South Carolina! On December 9, 2015, Clarendon County became the first county in South Carolina to require that all attorneys making any filing on a new or pending civil case (including foreclosures) do so electronically via an online portal developed by the state judicial department. Pro se parties will continue to be permitted to file documents via traditional methods. The institution of e-filing practice is being supervised and mandated by the state. As such, it is anticipated that users will e-file via the same portal interface in all e-filing counties—which suggests that e-filing practice should be generally uniform throughout the state. Three other counties that share the same judicial circuit with Clarendon are scheduled to begin e-filing by mid-February 2016. No additional roll-out dates to other counties have been provided, but many more–if not all–are anticipated throughout the remainder of 2016. Eventually, e-filing will be a statewide mandatory practice. In conjunction with the development and maintenance of the portal and electronic payment processing, additional filing fees have been added—with the filing fee for a Summons and Complaint being approximately $30 higher while a motion filing fee is approximately $6 higher. Notably, all e-filed documents are available for viewing online by the general public very soon after filing. We have further noted that many other counties have recently begun making documents filed via traditional methods available for viewing online.

Associate Attorney Kristen Washburn, of Brock & Scott, PLLC, was notified on the morning of December 9, 2015 that she has the historic distinction of being the first attorney in South Carolina to file a document electronically in state court! Her picture currently welcomes all users to the e-filing portal, as shown below. We will continue to update our procedures to conform to these exciting changes. Please contact Brock & Scott, PLLC for any inquiry you may have regarding e-filing in South Carolina. Additional information can be found at http://www.sccourts.org/efiling/