33rd / 424th District Courts

There is an excellent link on the State Bar site  about e-filing. (updated 12/21/05)

Burnet County (and only Burnet County in the 33rd) has been approved for E-Filing -- i.e. filing documents by electronic means, via internet submission. This will cover all filings with the District Clerk including family law cases in the county court-at-law. The purpose of this email is to get an idea of how many documents you feel you might file in this manner. Some more info about it: Basic routine:

• Get signed up with a service provider (not your internet provider, but the e-filing provider). No up front fee. Arrange credit card.
• Prepare your document.
• Sign onto the website (clerk's home page) and upload the document.
• Your credit card is charged.
• From there it is automatically filed with the clerk and any other attorneys in that same case who are on e-filing are served their copy.
• You get a filing receipt and a service receipt for any e-filing lawyers.
• You're done.

Cost? -- it is anticipated to be $6.00 per document. That's regardless of the size -- one page or 50. I know, that feels expensive. But consider all of the time involvements of coming to the courthouse even if you are in Burnet. And you don't have to cut a separate check. Even if you are as far as Marble Falls the $6 is cheap. This is the wave of the future and if there are any large multi-party cases that would justify it, you can bet that use of the e-filing will be required. A side issue, but an important one, is that considerable time in the clerk's office (and thus some reduction in the need for additional personnel as we grow) can be realized. It is anticipated that The Software Group, the company providing the case management software, will be able to have the e-filing dropped straight into the clerk's computer system, totally bypassing manual input of the data and scanning of the document into an image.