Supreme Court allows e-filing

By Peter Vieth, Virginia Lawyers Weekly – 6/2/2020

The Supreme Court of Virginia is encouraging lawyers and litigants to file their pleadings with that court electronically.

In the June 2 order, the court says it “will permit and does hereby encourage counsel and pro se litigants to file electronically all pleadings and documents that would otherwise be required to be filed in hard copy with this Court.”

The order points to e-filing guidelines already posted on the court’s website. Parties should not provide paper copies of any document filed electronically pursuant to the order, the court said.

The court’s previous judicial-emergency declarations authorized e-filing, but only in the trial courts, according to appellate attorney L. Steven Emmert. The Court of Appeals has been encouraging e-filing through the VACES system; this order governs e-filing in the Supreme Court, Emmert said.