In the era of digital filing and processing, there’s more terminology than ever to keep up with. At First Legal, we’ve noticed that a common point of confusion arises when it comes to differentiating between judicial courtesy copies, electronic courtesy copies and electronic service notifications. Each of these notifications accomplishes a different part of the legal process
- Judicial courtesy copies are the paper courtesy copies of documents required by local rules or judicial request.
- Non-judicial courtesy copies are used to provide courtesy notice to clients and other individuals as a convenience. Although they can be sent through the eFiling portal or by email, they are not intended as eService. At First Legal, our Odyssey eFiling portal allows you to send courtesy copies to any list of email addresses, and the recipients will receive a confirmation of the filing as well as a copy of the document.
- Electronic service notifications aka eService is an official method of notice between parties in the case. When you submit a filing, you can add and attach electronic service contacts. This means that, upon submission of the filing, those contacts will receive an electronic filing service notification. These notifications are sent through a system which tracks the time they were sent, as well as when the recipient opens the documents. This is a great way to ensure expediency and accountability. Although electronic service notifications cannot replace personal service or service of process for all documents, they provide a great means of notifying opposing counsel when applicable.
To learn more about physical courtesy copies, check out our article on courtesy copies and eFiling!
