Court filing is the process of submitting documents to initiate legal proceedings against an individual, organization, or even the state. When you submit hard copies of your lawsuit in person, you are doing an In-Person Court Filing.
But first: the New York court has stated that all class actions must be filed electronically (e-Filing) through the New York State Courts Electronic Filing System (NYSCEF), except for actions under the following:
- Article 70 and 78 proceedings
- Election law
- Matrimonial law
- Mental hygiene law
Steps for In-Person Filing in New York
To file a lawsuit in person, attorneys must deliver their summons and complaint, summons with notice, or petition in a special proceeding to the County Clerk in Room 141B (basement level) at 60 Centre Street. They must also pay $210 to get an index number. After date-stamping the documents, the County Clerk will file the original documents in a color-coded jacket and keep it. Any subsequent, hard-copy documents submitted for filing will also be kept in this jacket. The Clerk will also log the date of its filing, then give the attorneys a copy of the stamped commencement papers.
Steps for E-Filing
The same process applies for the electronic filing of commencement papers. The filing party must upload a PDF copy of their summons and complaint, summons with notice, or petition in a special proceeding at the New York State Courts Electronic Filing System (NYSCEF) website, www.nycourts.gov/efile.
The NYSCEF will then email the case’s index number. The plaintiff’s party must pay the filing fee of $210 electronically through Visa, MasterCard, or American Express credit or bank card.
Hire Process Servers to Carry Out In-Person Filing
When time is not a luxury, attorneys can enlist the help of professional process servers when it’s time to file a lawsuit at the county clerk’s office.
Process servers are allowed to do the in-person filing of lawsuits in New York. The task fits with process servers’ specialty: to deliver legal documents safely to the right people while following the strict guidelines of the service of process. Licensed process servers are also knowledgeable about the filing process given that they also submit additional legal documents in court and retrieve documents from various government offices, among other places.
Should you hire a process server to file your clients’ lawsuits in court? If you cannot do it yourself, process servers are indeed your next best option.
Choose Our Serve Index Process Servers
Our licensed process servers are trained to follow the guidelines of in-person filing, know their way around New York circuit courts, and can be trusted to complete the task as quickly as possible.
Apart from first-time in-person filing, we can also do the following for you:
- Obtain and pay for index numbers, transcripts, calendar number, jury demand, and more.
- Serve out-of-state subpoenas and so ordered subpoenas.
- Retrieve documents from different sources.
Contact us to learn more about our In-Person Filing services. Reach Serve Index LLC at 1 888 994 6339 or contact us through our website.