THE COURTS
Title 255—LOCAL
COURT RULES
WESTMORELAND COUNTY
Civil Rule—Electronic Filing; No. 3 of 2017
[47 Pa.B. 3972]
[Saturday, July 22, 2017]
Administrative Order of Court And Now, this 5th day of July, 2017, It Is Hereby Ordered that Westmoreland County Rules W205.4 is hereby adopted. This change is effective 30 days after publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.
By the Court
RICHARD E. McCORMICK, Jr.,
President JudgeRule W205.4. Electronic Filing of Legal Papers in Westmoreland County.
(a)(1) Except as noted below, use of the Westmoreland County electronic filing system is permissive for the filing of all legal papers in the Civil Division and Family Division, in all actions and proceedings brought in or appealed to the Court.
A. Use of the Westmoreland County electronic filing system is not permitted for the following Civil Division filings:
1. Notice of Appeal to the Superior, Commonwealth or Supreme Courts, or Petition for Review to the Commonwealth Court
2. Notice of Appeal from arbitration award and related papers and record
3. Notice of Appeal from magisterial district justice award and related papers and record
4. Emergency motion
5. Exemplification of Records
6. Praecipe to Reissue Writ of Summons
7. Praecipe to Reinstate Complaint
8. Petitions for Name Change
9. Filings under seal
10. Oversized documents or documents that cannot be reduced into an 8 1/2 × 11 inch format.
11. License Suspension Appeals
B. Use of the Westmoreland County electronic filing system is not permitted for the following Family Division filings:
1. Legal papers related to actions under the Protection from Abuse Act
2. Legal papers relating to custody: legal custody; physical custody; supervised physical custody; petition for modification of a custody order; petition for contempt; petition to intervene as well as a complaint in divorce that contains a count for custody
3. Emergency motions
4. Filings under seal
(b)(1) All legal papers shall be presented for electronic filing in PDF format.
(c)(1) Reserved.
(c)(2) All legal papers that are filed electronically shall be filed through the Prothonotary's electronic filing system. Attorneys and unrepresented parties may access the electronic filing system through the Westmoreland County Prothonotary's website, http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/323/Prothonotary. To obtain access to the electronic filing system, counsel and any unrep- resented party must apply to the Prothonotary's Office for a user name and password. By logging into the electronic filing system and creating a user name and password, the user consents to receive all notices generated by the Prothonotary and the Courts electronically, via the email address provided in the user's profile. By providing an email address in a profile, the user is deemed to have provided an email address on a legal paper filed consistent with Pa.R.Civ.P. 236(d).
(d)(1) The Prothonotary will accept for payment of all filing fees electronic checks and the following credit and debit cards: Discover, Visa and Master Card.
(e)(1) A filing party shall be responsible for any filing fee, delay, disruption, interruption of the electronic signals and legibility of the document electronically filed, except when caused by the failure of the electronic filing system's website.
(e)(2)(A) The court upon motion shall resolve any dispute arising under paragraph (e)(1).
(e)(2)(B) If a party makes a good faith effort to electronically file a legal paper but it is not received, accepted or filed by the electronic filing system, the Court may order that the paper be accepted and filed nunc pro tunc upon a showing that the filing party or counsel made reasonable efforts to present and file the paper in a timely manner.
(f)(1) Upon receipt of the legal paper, the Prothonotary shall provide the filing party with an acknowledgment, which includes the date and time the legal paper was received by the electronic filing system. The Prothonotary also shall provide the filing party with notice that the legal paper was accepted for filing. If a legal paper is not accepted upon presentation for filing or is refused for filing by the electronic filing system, the Prothonotary shall immediately notify the party presenting the legal paper for filing of the date of presentation, the fact that the document was not accepted or was refused for filing by the system, and the reason.
(f)(2) The Prothonotary shall continue to maintain a hard copy of any legal paper, notice or order filed or maintained electronically under this rule.
(f)(3) The electronic filing of a legal paper does not satisfy the filing party's obligation under the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure or the Westmoreland County Rules of Civil Procedure to serve the legal paper on all parties to the litigation or on the Court.
(f)(4) The procedures for payment of the fees and costs related to electronic filing shall be set forth on the Westmoreland County Prothonotary's website, http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/323/Prothonotary.
Note: Attorneys and litigants who file documents are required to comply with the Public Access Policy of the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania: Case Records of the Appellate and Trial Courts.
[Pa.B. Doc. No. 17-1204. Filed for public inspection July 21, 2017, 9:00 a.m.]
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