The San Bernardino Superior Court’s electronic filing (“eFiling”) requirements for Family Law are issued pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 1010.6, California Rules of Court, rules 2.250, et seq., and Superior Court of San Bernardino, Local Rules, rule 1800.
Documents that fail to comply with these requirements or deemed unacceptable for eFiling will be rejected.
PARTICIPATION
Effective February 26, 2024, all court users are permitted to file documents eligible for eFiling in Family Law cases through an approved electronic filing service provider (“EFSP”).
REQUIREMENTS FOR eFILING
eFilers must establish an account with an approved EFSP prior to eFiling with the court. To view the list of approved EFSPs and to create an account, visit http://www.odysseyefileca.com/service-providers.htm.
eFilers must comply with California Rules of Court, rules 2.250 – 2.261. All documents eFiled must be submitted in PDF format using Adobe Acrobat version 7 or higher, and must be text searchable (i.e. optical character recognition (OCR)). The court cannot accept documents that do not meet the required formatting. The court also cannot accept documents with certain characteristics including, but not limited to: forms with fillable fields, a negative image, or an image that is saved as an object on the filed document. When using Judicial Council fillable forms, fields must be inactivated and no longer fillable before submission.
eFilers must maintain originals of all documents that are eFiled with the court, including but not limited to, documents containing signatures pursuant to California Rules of Court, rule 2.257. Electronic signatures on eFiled documents must comply with the requirements of Code of Civil Procedure section 1010.6(e)(2), and California Rules of Court, rule 2.257.
Pursuant to California Rules of Court, rule 1.201(a), unless otherwise required by law, only the last four digits of a social security or financial account number may be reflected on court filings. Exclusions or redaction to satisfy this rule is the responsibility of the eFiler, not the Clerk of the Court (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 1.201(b).)
To maintain confidentiality and ensure all redactions are appropriately applied, it is important that the submitting party remove all metadata. Metadata is hidden information embedded within a document that may reveal a document’s revision history, earlier drafts, and information about the document’s author, file name, file path, date of creation, etc. This information is still available and accessible even if the document was converted to a PDF. It is the submitting party’s responsibility to familiarize themselves with metadata and how to properly remove it.
Any document received electronically by the court between 12:00 a.m. and 11:59:59 p.m. is deemed to have been filed on that court day if accepted for filing. Any document received electronically on a non-court day is deemed to have been filed on the next court day if accepted for filing. A document is “received electronically” on the date and time a confirmation of the court’s receipt of the electronic transmission is created.
If electronic service is required or permitted, electronic service is governed by the Code of Civil Procedure section 1010.6, and California Rules of Court, rule 2.251.
MAXIMUM FILE SIZE
There is a 25 MB document limit and a 50 MB filing limit for eFile submissions. No single document can be larger than 25 MB and no group of documents can be larger than 50 MB on a single eFile submission. Contact your EFSP for assistance in optimizing your files.
EXHIBITS
eFiled exhibits must meet the requirements in California Rules of Court, rule 2.256(b). Unless submitted by a self-represented party, electronic exhibits must include electronic bookmarks with links to the first page of each exhibit and titles that identify the exhibit number or letter and briefly describe the exhibit. (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 3.1110(f)(4)).
The court encourages the use of electronic bookmarks in electronic documents for each heading, subheading, and document components, such as table of contents, table of authorities, declaration, and proof of service, if included.
COLOR SCANNED DOCUMENTS
When submissions need to be scanned in color, they should be scanned separately from those documents that can be scanned in black and white. Color scanning resolution should be set at 300 dpi to ensure effective upload and adequate capacity for storage. This setting can be adjusted through the scanner settings menu, under scan resolution.
DOCUMENTS INELIGIBLE FOR eFILING
See the Family Law Ineligible List.
PROPOSED ORDERS AND PROPOSED JUDGMENTS:
Proposed orders may only be submitted electronically with a filing to be considered at a hearing (e.g., adoption orders, Order on Motion to be Relieved as Counsel, etc.) or a Fee Waiver Order, and should be electronically submitted as a separate document. An order will not appear on the court’s website as filed unless it has been signed by the Judicial Officer. At this time, the court only requires the eFiler to electronically file a proposed order in a PDF format; an editable word-processing version and an EFS-020 cover sheet pursuant to California Rules of Court, rule 3.1312(c)(1)-(2), is not required.
Stand-alone orders, such as Earnings Assignment Orders, Income Withholding Orders, Findings and Orders after Hearing, Qualified Domestic Relations Orders, Stipulation and Orders, and Judgments are ineligible for eFiling.
PUBLIC ACCESS TO eFILED DOCUMENTS
In general, filed documents are viewable by the general public through the Court Access Portal (CAP) and at the Courthouse. Family law proceedings have limited remote and public access pursuant to California law and Rules of Court. When initiating a new case, it is the responsibility of the eFiler to designate electronic submissions in family law proceedings under the Case Category “Family” and to designate the correct Case Type (e.g., Step Parent Adoption or Dissolution w/Minor Children) to ensure public access is appropriately restricted (e.g., restricted public remote access, party only access, no public access). In addition, documents assigned document filing names with document security designated as confidential will have restricted public access at the level required for the case category, case type, and document (e.g., restricted public remote access , party only access, no public access). It is the sole responsibility of the eFiler to properly designate the case category, case type, and document filing name, and thereby the document security level for all eFiled documents. No case information or case documents are available to the public or the press if the entire case is deemed confidential or sealed. Documents to be filed under seal or conditionally under seal may not be eFiled. (See Cal. Rules of Court, rules 2.550 et seq. for procedures for filing records under seal). The court does not audit or review eFiled documents to determine whether they should be excluded from public access and is not responsible or liable for any improperly designated eFiled documents.