15TH
JUDICIAL
CIRCUIT
=------------=
OF
FLORIDA
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ADMINISTRATIVE
OFFICE
OF
THE
COURT
E-SERVICE INSTRUCTIONS FOR SELF REPRESENTED PARTIES
Pursuant to the Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.516, s elf-represented parties involved in any
type of case in any Florida court, may, but are not required to, serve on the opposing party's attorney court
documents by e-mail.
E-mail Service to/from an Opposing Party
: Self-represented parties opting to serve court documents by e-
mai
l may do so by de signating a primary e-mail address (and up to 2 s econdary e-mail addresses) for
receiving service in that proceeding. This designation only informs the other side of your email address.
Once a party has filed an e-mail address designation in a proceeding, all court documents required or
permitted to be served on a party must be served by e-mail unless the parties otherwise agree or a court
orders otherwise.
E-Mail Service from Participating Judges: Self-represented parties
who want to receive court orders and
other court documents from judges who use e-mail service MUST register with the 15th Judicial Circuit's
online services system at
www.15thcircuit.com/html/onlineservices. You will NOT receive court
documents from participating judges unless and until you register with the 15th Judicial Circuit's online
system.
Form of Email: 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’s subject line must state “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:
(1) court in which the proceeding is pending; (2) case number; (3) name of the initial party on each side;
(3) title of each document served with that e-mail; (4) sender’s name; (5) sender’s 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. Documents served by e-mail may be signed by "/s/", "/s" or "s/" as long as
the document filed with the Clerk's Office is signed in accordance with the applicable rule of procedure.
Service Dates: Service by e-mail is deemed complete on the date it is sent. E-mail service is treated as
ser
vice by mail for the computation of time. When, in addition to service by e-mail, the sender also
utilizes another means of service provided for in the Rules of Judicial Administration, the computation of
time will be based on the method of service that has the shortest response time.
Filing of Documents: The Rules of Judicial Administration require that all documents be filed with the
court
either before service on the opposing party or immediately thereafter. Documents are deemed filed
when they are filed with the clerk of court. If the sender learns that the e-mail did not reach the address of
the person to be served, the sender must immediately send another copy by e-mail, or serve by a means
authorized by subdivision (b)(2) of the Rules of Judicial Administration.
