What is eFiling?

eFiling is the term that covers the electronic lodgement, processing and retrieval of court documents relating to cases in the County Court of Victoria.

Legal practitioners use eFiling to lodge originating or additional documents. Meanwhile, the court uses it to assign case numbers and accept, reject or suppress documents.

This dual-processing results in a current, accurate case record of electronic lodgements available for online review and action at any time.

What are the hours of operation?

You can access our County Court of Victoria eFiling system 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can only successfully lodge documents during registry hours.

If you attempt to lodge a document after the closing time of the corresponding registry, it’ll be processed next business day and stamped accordingly.

Read about the County Court of Victoria registry hours.

Can I eFile all County Court of Victoria documents?

You can only eFile documents in civil matters. View a current list of documents that you can eFile.

How do I eFile documents that require a signature?

You must eFile documents requiring a signature as images including the signature.

Can I review and edit a document after I’ve lodged it?

The County Court of Victoria processes documents you lodge through our eFiling system in real time.

Once you’ve attached a document to a case or additional filing and lodged it, you cannot retrieve or modify that document via our eFiling system. You are responsible for ensuring documents are correct and complete before lodgement.

You can lodge amended documents through ‘Add or change party’. But you cannot use this function to make changes to previously filed documents.

Please see the below section for advice on how to submit a request to reset documents you submit in error.

How do I request a document reset if I submit a document in error?

For any requests to reset documents you submit in error to the County Court of Victoria via eFiling, please complete the Request to reset document filed in error form.

A solicitor having conduct of the proceeding needs to sign this form and submit it to the Court through the applicable registry:

Common Law Division

commonlaw.registry@countycourt.vic.gov.au
(03) 8636 6508

Commercial Law Division

commercial.registry@countycourt.vic.gov.au
(03) 8636 6690

After receiving the completed form, the court will process your request and inform you of its decision.

Can I lodge documents for a case that weren’t initiated in eFiling?

The eFiling system can retrieve the details of cases regardless of whether you lodge them manually or through eFiling.

It doesn’t hold actual manually lodged documents, and you cannot retrieve them online.

You can make subsequent lodgements on manually created cases through eFiling. eFilings are subject to the same rules as comparative documents filed through the traditional manual system.

Can I lodge documents in the County Court if I am based outside of Victoria?

Yes, as long as you have a Victorian Legal Service’s Board solicitor code number (Victorian solicitor code).

A solicitor must have a Victorian solicitor code to file in the county court’s case management system. Many interstate firms have agencies or business addresses in Victoria and already have a Victorian solicitor code they can use.

If you don’t have a Victorian solicitor code, you may apply for access to eFiling. Simply download and complete the Request by interstate solicitor to lodge documents via eFiling form.

A solicitor having conduct of the proceeding needs to sign this form and submit it to the Court through the applicable registry:

Common Law Division

commonlaw.registry@countycourt.vic.gov.au
(03) 8636 6508

Commercial Law Division

commercial.registry@countycourt.vic.gov.au
(03) 8636 6690

After the court receives the completed form, they’ll process your request and inform you of their decision.

If approved, they will issue you with a code that can then be entered into the eFiling system for the particular case that you are associated with. This code can only be used for filing on the case that it is assigned to.

What is the expected turnaround time for eFilings?

You can only successfully lodge documents during registry hours. If you attempt to lodge a document after the closing time of the corresponding registry, the registry will process and stamp it on the next business day.

View the registry hours.

Are there extra charges for using eFiling?

As with manual lodgements, some documents have statutory fees in eFiling. These fees are the same despite the filing method.

We also charge a small administration fee for each lodgement, regardless of whether a statutory fee applies to that document. However, we don’t charge for holding documents or retrieving filing results and a number of documents do not incur a charge

For documents that are subject to a court statutory fee, the court fee rate that applies depends on the case parties that you’re filing the document on behalf of. Either a corporate, standard or concession fee rate will apply.

Once you select parties from the ‘Filed on behalf of’ list, a ‘Determine fee rate’ button will appear. Depending on the case parties you select, you must supply extra information about these case parties for the fee rate to be determined.

Filing on behalf of an organisation

If at least one case party you’re filing on behalf of is an organisation, then the filing will be subject to either a corporate or a standard fee. Conditions that make such a document filing eligible for the standard fee rate are:

1. All organisations you’re filing on behalf of are not-for-profit organisations that operate exclusively for charitable, civil or other social purposes; and do not share or allocate the funds or profits of the organisation with the owners, shareholders or executives of the organisation.
2. All organisations you’re filing on behalf of had annual turnovers less than $200,000 in the last financial year.
3. All organisations you’re filing on behalf of fall into category 1. or 2. above.

Otherwise, the document filing will be at the corporate fee rate.

Filing on behalf of an individual

If all case parties you’re filing on behalf of are individuals, the filing will be subject to either a standard or a concession fee rate.

If each individual holds a valid health care concession card within the meaning of the Social Security Act 1991 (Cth), the document filing will be eligible for the concession fee rate. Otherwise, the document filing will be at the standard fee rate.

For document filings at a reduced rate, in other words standard or the concession fee rate, a declaration statement will display that you must acknowledge for the lodgement to proceed.

Are there any technical requirements for this system?

The size limit for most documents you submit via eFiling is 4 MB. The system allows specified documents (affidavits and statements of expert witness) to be up to 40 MB.

If the document exceeds the current file size limit, please contact our Customer Service Centre on confirm@citec.com.au, and we’ll attempt to reduce the document size. If this isn’t possible, we’ll send the document through to the Court for filing.

How can I reduce the size of my document to be filed?

If your document exceeds the upload limit, try re-scanning any scanned portions of the document at a lower resolution. Lower resolution does not overly affect document quality if the scanned document is mostly text.

Can I put a new case on hold?

You can put new cases on hold from the save case screen. Placing an eFiling on hold delays submission until you take it off hold.

The court and other filers cannot access eFilings that are on hold. You can place eFilings on hold indefinitely.

You can also get filings on hold from ‘Filing results’ and submit it as normal.

Modifying a filing on hold always removes it from hold status. However, you can place it on hold again from the save case screen.

No charges apply for holding an eFiling.

How will I receive the Case number?

New cases receive a Case number once the court has accepted the filing.

Case numbers are visible in ‘Filing results’. To find case numbers, you can use other identifying lodgement information such as:

• your reference
• case description
• status date.

How do I move between screens?

When creating or editing a case, you’ll notice that, along the top of the input screen, two blue tabs represent a separate input screen. You can click between these tabs without losing information.

Alternately, you can use the buttons at the bottom of each input screen and move to the next tab or screen in sequence.

Where possible, you should avoid using your browser back button to move between screens, as you may lose information.

How do I know which information on each screen is mandatory?

A red asterisk identifies mandatory information, while a green asterisk identifies conditional information.

Asterisks can refer to single items or groups of information. Fields without an asterisk are optional.

For example, when you add another party via the button on the ‘Case parties’ tab, you’ll notice groups of conditional fields.

If you enter a surname, you must also enter the first given name. So these fields have green asterisks.

How do I use the ‘Select’ links?

A ‘Select’ link will open a browser window with all the available options for a particular field. Selecting from this list will automatically populate the field with your choice.

The County Court of Victoria provides the values in each list.

If you believe a value is missing from the list, contact us with the details. This will help us to consider an amendment with the court.

How can I locate an error?

A document that you lodge without mandatory information or with invalid information will result in an error. A red error bar will display at the top of every screen, and a warning symbol will appear on the tab(s) in question.

To correct the error, select a tab displaying the warning symbol. This will allow you to view and correct the error.

The red bar will display a description of the error(s), and a warning symbol will appear next to each field that requires correction.

Will ‘Clear all’ wipe out all the information I have entered?

The ‘Clear all’ button will only remove information from the screen (tab) you’re on.

Can I use this system if I am representing myself in court?

Self-represented litigants (unrepresented plaintiffs or defendants) cannot use eFiling. Please refer directly to the County Court of Victoria’s ‘Self represented litigants’ page for information on how to proceed.

Our Customer Service Centre is here to help you between 8:00 am – 5:00 pm, Monday to Friday.

Phone	1800 773 773
Email	confirm@citec.com.au