MEDICAL MALPRACTICE & WRONGFUL DEATH TRIAL ATTORNEYS
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MAKAUFMAN.COM
NEW RULE 2.516
E-mail service will be mandatory for attorneys practicing in the civil,
probate, small claims, and family law divisions of the trial courts, as
well as in all appellate cases starting September 1, 2012.
New rule 2.516 provides that all documents required or permitted to be
served on another party must be served by e-mail. Upon appearing in a
proceeding a lawyer must designate a primary e-mail address, and may designate
up to two secondary e-mail addresses, for receiving service. Thereafter,
service on the lawyer must be made by e-mail.
A lawyer may file a motion to be excused from e-mail service, demonstrating
that he or she has no e-mail account and lacks access to the Internet
at the lawyer's office. In addition, applications for witness subpoenas
and documents served by formal notice or required to be served in the
manner provided for service of formal notice are not required to comply
with rule 2.516.
Service by e-mail is deemed complete when the e-mail is sent. Additionally,
e-mail service is made by attaching a copy of the document to be served
in PDF format to an e-mail. The e-mail must contain the subject line -SERVICE
OF COURT DOCUMENT‖ in all capital letters, followed by the case number
of the relevant proceeding. The body of the e-mail must identify the court
in which the proceeding is pending, the case number, the name of the initial
party on each side, the title of each document served with that e-mail,
and the sender's name and telephone number. The e-mail and attachments
together may not exceed 5 megabytes in size; e-mails that exceed the size
requirement must be divided into separate e-mails (no one of which may
exceed 5 megabytes) and labeled sequentially in the subject line.
As set forth above, the amendments to the rules and forms shall become
effective September 1, 2012, at 12:01 a.m.
