A Los Angeles attorney negotiated a change to San Bernardino Superior Court’s electronic filing policy.
Levi Lesches of Lesches Law filed suit March 11, alleging that both San Bernardino and Los Angeles’ practice of rejecting documents if the attorney paid the wrong filing fee violated state rules.
San Bernardino negotiated a new policy by Sept. 29. Presiding Judge Lisa Rogan’s General Order 24-029 gives a party 20 days to pay an imbalance in filing fees before rejecting the filing. The order also required the court to send a notice to the filer that they had not paid in full.
Following the order, San Bernardino Superior Court was dropped from the case.
Los Angeles Superior Court adopted an identical policy Jan. 29.
“The General Orders adopted by the Superior Courts will assist litigants in avoiding the costs and burdens associated with missed statutes of limitations, being placed in default, or losing other procedural rights due to the erroneous rejection of a ‘first paper,’” Lesches wrote to Follow Our Courts by email.
Lesches said he appreciated both courts’ cooperation. His complaint said that his suit intended to assist both courts in identifying reliability issues associated with their new eFiling systems.
“General Order 24-029 ensures uniformity in filing fee deficiencies and grants electronic filers the same 20-day grace period as paper filers to correct insufficient filing fee payments,” wrote Brittany Cabrera, San Bernardino Superior Court public information officer.
The settlement does not come with a financial payoff.
Lesches and attorneys for both courts filed a joint stipulation to dismiss the case Jan. 31.
