In California, rules around submitting documents other than the originals were first drafted when the most common alternative method of submission was fax filing. As laid out in California Rule of Court 2.303:
(f) Notation of fax filing
Each document filed by a fax filing agency must contain the phrase "By fax" immediately below the title of the document.
Because the document being submitted to the court is not the original, filing agencies like One Legal are required to indicate that fact by including the words “by fax” on the document. Even though the manner in which we send and receive court documents has changed over the years to include document uploads, the court has not changed the "by fax" verbiage, and the requirement still applies to all documents submitted through One Legal.
Parties should be able to produce the original documents if required by the judge.