In Indiana, eFiling is mandatory for attorneys in all Indiana courts including Tax Courts, Court of Appeals, and the Indiana Supreme Court. Attorneys may choose any of the approved electronic filing service providers (EFSPs) except in protective order cases. All protective orders must be filed through Indiana’s own state protective order eFiling service provider.
Self-represented litigants are not required to eFile, but it is recommended.
Electronic and conventional service with eFiling in Indiana
When you electronically file a case, you must electronically serve documents to any party who has a service contact listed in the case or on the Public Service List. If the party you want to serve is not listed as a service contact and is not on the Public Service List, you must serve them conventionally.
When searching the Public Service List, you can find listings by contact name, email address, firm name, or partial information such as email address extensions. For example, search for “atg.in.gov” to find users in the Office of the Attorney General.
Whether serving electronically or conventionally, you may still use InfoTrack service of process tools to complete your serve.
Electronically filing a case in Indiana means that you must also receive electronic service of any documents from any party on the case. Non-attorney parties should register themselves as a service contact in the case to accept electronic service. If a non-attorney party does not register themselves as a service contact, they must receive service conventionally. It is also a best practice for attorneys to register themselves as a service contact in the case as quickly as possible to ensure that service information is correct.
Note that orders issued by the court do not go through an e-filing system and, therefore, are not emailed to service contacts on the case. Orders are issued in the court’s case management system and will only be emailed to the attorneys of record on the case. Contact your local court with questions.
Redacting confidential information
Review the Indiana Rules on Access to Court Records to confirm any information that must be redacted from court filings. If you do not redact confidential information correctly, your documents may be stricken from the record, and you may receive sanctions from the court or incur liability to third parties.
Use a suitable digital redaction method to remove confidential information from documents. Note that adding a black rectangle, highlighting text in black, reducing text size, or changing text color to white are NOT acceptable redaction methods. Redaction should be completed with a commercial redaction tool or otherwise completed in a way that removes sensitive information from both the document and the metadata.
In filings that include both public and confidential information, split the confidential portion into a separate PDF file and submit it in the same envelope. (Note: an envelope is the term for the full package of documents that are electronically filed.)
Preparing documents for eFiling in Indiana
To avoid rejections, follow these best practices to prepare your documents for eFiling.
- Do not include d/b/a, a/k/a, or similar designations in your party names.
- Check to make sure that party names and addresses are included in full and match the case file.
- Include a lead document with every filing.
- Make sure that filing numbers and filing types match.
- Ensure that pages are numbered correctly.
- Check that headers are present and left-justified.
- Submit appendix table of contents as a separate volume.
- Check rules on auditory or video exhibits before submission – rejections for improperly submitted multimedia exhibits are common.
If you need to cancel a filing, you may do so after it is submitted, but before the clerk opens it.
Indiana’s document formatting requirements are similar to most states.
- Documents must be in PDF format, preferably digitally created instead of scanned.
- If your form is a fillable PDF, it must be converted to a static PDF before submission. Do not eFile a fillable form.
- Always apply optical character recognition (OCR) to make documents text searchable. This applies to both digitally created and scanned PDF documents.
- Scanned documents must be a minimum resolution of 300 DPI. Scan color documents in color and use data compression to keep file sizes low.
- All documents must be legible when submitted. You are responsible for ensuring that all digital and scanned documents are readable and clear.
- Every document must be viewable in its entirety using PDF viewing software.
- Check for data corruption in your file before submission. Corrupted documents may result in a rejected filing.
- File size limits are 50 MB maximum on each individual document and 75 MB maximum for the total envelope.
- Documents should be 8.5” by 11” pages in portrait orientation. Use a 1” top margin that is free of text and markings other than the required header.
- Documents must not contain encryption or passwords, unreadable words or images, invalid or corrupted tables, or embedded files.
- Bookmarks are welcome, but not required.
- If you use hyperlinks, ensure that they only link to public websites that do not require password or subscription. Hyperlinks should display the link text instead of anchor text. For example, link to http://www.InfoTrack.com instead of linking to InfoTrack this way.
- File names must not exceed 100 characters including the .pdf file extension.
Where to find more information about eFiling in Indiana
To review the full rules for Indiana eFiling, visit https://www.in.gov/courts/efiling/rules/. You may also review all available information about Indiana eFiling at https://www.in.gov/courts/efiling/.