You may see several court fees appear on the review screen of your order or later in your invoice. These fees are applied for different reasons and based on different factors.
Here is a breakdown of the fees you may be charged, why they are being applied, and by which entity.
Statutory court fees
Court fees are those imposed by the court according to the filing and document type. These are the same fees that would have been applied when filing documents in paper form with the court.
There are several different court fees that you might see applied to your eFiling.
| Court fee | About |
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Initial filing fee |
These are the fees that must be paid when the complaint or other first paper is filed, the cost to initiate a case. |
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Other filing fees |
Subsequent filings submitted later in the lifecycle of a case may also incur fees. |
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Other court fees |
Courts may impose fees for a wide range of other court-related costs, from the hiring of a court-provided court reporter to the copying of official records. |
In many cases, the document types you select during the eFiling process will trigger the correct fees for that filing. Other types, it will be up to you, the filer, to know which fees are required and add them as necessary.
Read more: How to pay court fees when eFiling>>
Other court-imposed fees
Individual courts will charge additional fees that are specific to electronic court filing. These are small amounts that are intended to help the court cover costs associated with the transition to electronic court filing.
These fees vary between courts, both in the amount that is imposed and the name that is used to describe it.
| Court fee | About |
|
Court Technology / Court Transaction / EFM Fee |
This is the fee charged by the court's technology vendor, meaning the company that provides the court's back-end eFiling system with which One Legal connects. (i.e. eFile CA) |
| Cost Recovery Fee | This is an additional court fee intended to help the court cover the cost of running the eFiling system. |
| Court / EFM-imposed credit card convenience fee | Separate to One Legal's convenience fee, these are fees charged by the court or its EFM when court fees are paid by credit card.* |
| eCheck fees | If a court allows for court fees to be paid by electronic check, $0.25 is charged for the processing of that eCheck.* |
*Note: One Legal will pay court fees on your behalf via whichever method carries the lowest fee, usually eCheck.
Each of these fees is separate from any One Legal charges and are all part of the cost of electronic court filing as determined by the court. Check your court's website for the most up to date fee schedule.
To understand pricing for using One Legal's products and services, please review our Pricing and Deadlines page.