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Refer to the Supreme Court of Texas’ Rules of Procedure for information regarding eFiling.
Included in these rules:
Wills are not required to be filed electronically. When a party electronically files an application to probate a document as an original will, the original will must be filed with the clerk within three business days after the application is filed.
The following documents must not be filed electronically
(i) documents filed under seal or presented to the court in camera; and
(ii) documents to which access is otherwise restricted by law or court order.
Unless a document must be filed by a certain time of day, a document is considered timely filed if it is electronically filed at any time before midnight (in the court’s time zone) on the filing deadline. An electronically filed document is deemed filed when transmitted to the filing party’s electronic filing service provider, except:
| (A) | if a document is transmitted on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, it is deemed filed on the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday; and |
| (B) | if a document requires a motion and an order allowing its filing, the document is deemed filed on the date that the motion is granted. |
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A document that is electronically served, filed, or issued by a court or clerk is considered signed if the document includes:
| (A) | a “/s/” and name typed in the space where the signature would otherwise appear, unless the document is notarized or sworn; or |
(B) an electronic image or scanned image of the signature.
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| a) | be in text-searchable portable document format (PDF); |
| b) | be directly converted to PDF rather than scanned, if possible; |
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| A. | An e-filed document must be in text-searchable PDF, using fonts specified in the PDF specification, on 8.5x11 page size, with the content appropriately rotated. (ProDoc eFiling will convert most word processor files to a text-searchable PDF.) |
| B. | When possible, the document should be generated directly from the originating software using a PDF distiller. |
| C. | Prior to being filed electronically, a scanned document must have a resolution of 300 DPI. Preferably, scanned documents should be made searchable using OCR technology. |
| D. | An e-filed document may not contain any security or feature restrictions including password protection or encryption and may not contain embedded multi-media video, audio, or programming. |
| E. | Documents may not contain package PDF’s. PDF’s should not be embedded inside of another PDF. Each Document must be a single PDF. An appellate court may require that multiple PDF documents be combined into a single PDF document and bookmarks used to separate content appropriately. The content of the document should not depend on bookmarks. |
| F. | Any e-filed document filename should contain only alphanumeric characters that are part of the Latin1_General character set. No special characters are allowed and the length of the filename should be restricted to 50 characters including the extension (.doc, .pdf, etc). |
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 Other items you should know
When submitting documents in pdf format you must conform to these standards or there is a possibility that the State eFiling Manager will “Fail” your filing or that the court clerk will return your eFiling for correction. If your document is in a MS Word format, ProDoc will automatically convert your document to a conforming pdf document.
Some jurisdictions require you complete and file a jurisdiction specific Civil Process Request Form if you are requiring process service in the eFiling. Links to these forms are available to you in the Jurisdiction Specific Help windows in ProDoc eFiling.
Some jurisdictions require your pleading and exhibits to be combined into a single document and each section bookmarked.
There is a 35MB limit on an eFiling submission. If you have numerous documents or very large documents, make sure their size falls beneath this limit. If not, try to reduce their size if possible. If you submission exceeds the limit, you will need to break it down into more than one submission.
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