Vt. R. Elec. Filing. 2

As amended through October 8, 2024

Rule 2 - [Effective 1/1/2025] Definitions

(a)Court-Generated Document means documents generated by judicial officers or other court personnel under the applicable statutes or rules of procedure in all actions and proceedings entered in the Supreme Court, the Superior Court, or the Judicial Bureau. It includes documents submitted for approval to judicial officers or court personnel and approved by officers or personnel with or without modification.

(b)Document means a related and paginated grouping of information items that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.

(c)Electronic Case File means an assemblage of the items pertaining to a single case maintained by the judiciary in electronic form in the electronic case-management system, whether electronically filed or transmitted or scanned from a physical record. The electronic case file is part of a case file with a single case number that contains records that are in electronic case form and items that are not in electronic form.

(d)Electronic Filer or "efiler" means an attorney, who is required to electronically file, and any other person who is permitted or required to file electronically in a case.

(e)Electronic Filing or "efiling" means the process of transmitting a document from an electronic filer, using the Judiciary's electronic filing system, to the Judiciary's electronic case file.

(f)Electronic Filing System or "efiling system" means the Judiciary's Internet-accessible efiling and service system.

(g)Guide and File is part of the electronic filing system that enables a person to prepare a document by responding to a guided interview and to print the document for filing or to file it electronically.

(h)Judicial Officer means a justice, judge, assistant judge, magistrate, judicial bureau hearing officer, and a person specially assigned as a judge pursuant to 4 V.S.A. § 22.

(i)Nonelectronic Filing means any method of filing a paper document with the court.

(j)Personal Service means actual delivery of a nonelectronic copy of the notice or process to the person to whom it is directed.

(k)Service Contact means a person for whom an email address and other identifying information has been entered into the efiling system as a designated recipient of service on case filings from other parties through the efiling system.

(1)Firm Service Contact. A Firm Service Contact is a Service Contact associated in the efiling system with an attorney, organization, or law firm and is available only to users within the firm to add to a case for service.

(2)Public Contact. A Public Contact is a Service Contact listed on the Public List for purposes of electronic service that other electronic filers must use for service.

(3)Public List. The Public List is a directory of service contacts for system users that those users have created and made publicly available for other users to select for service.

(l)Submission Agreement is how an efiler certifies compliance with provisions of the efiling rules including, but not limited to, Rules 5(b)(5) and (6) (compliance with Rules for Public Access to Court Records) and Rule 11(g)(3) (Service). The submission agreement is part of the efiling process and efilers indicate compliance using a checkbox.

Vt. R. Elec. Filing. 2

Adopted Dec. 10, 2019, eff. 3/2/2020; amended February 22, 2021 eff. 3/15/2021; amended June 3, 2024 eff. 1/1/2025.

Reporter's Notes-2020

Rule 2 provides definitions for terms used throughout the rules. The definitions in Rule 2(a), (b), (c), and (e) and are taken in whole or in part from Rule 2 of the Vermont Rules for Public Access to Court Records and are intended to be consistent with the meaning in those rules. See Vermont Rules for Public Access to Court Records 2(f), (g), (h), and (l). Rule 2(h) defines "judicial officer" for purposes of Rule 2(b) and is intended to be broad. The derivation of the definition in Rule 2(j) for "personal service" is explained in the Reporter's Notes to Rule 11. The remaining definitions are taken from instructions for the new case management system.

Reporter's Notes-2021

Amendment The definition of "service contact" is amended to clarify, and provide a better understanding of, the types of service contacts that are used to make electronic service, and the source of the "public list," which is the primary reference for securing and using another party's email address for service and other case-related communications. The "public list" consists of a directory housed within the electronic filing system, of attorneys and other users who are registered efilers, and their email addresses created and made publicly available by the user as a service contact, and updated, in accordance with Rule 4(b)(3) and 5(b)(7).

A definition of "submission agreement" is added. A submission agreement is how efilers certify compliance with the electronic filing rules when a document is filed. These certifications include, but are not limited to, those of Rule 5(b)(5) and (6) (to certify compliance with V.R.P.A.C.R. 7(a)(1) as to protection of nonpublic records) and amended Rule 11(g)(3) (certifying compliance with service requirements). The submission agreement appears on the system page for each efiling, employing certification "boxes" that must be checked by the efiler to comply with certification. The submission agreement certification does not supplant the efiler's obligation to complete additional actions, if any, that are prescribed by the applicable rules. See, e.g., Rule 5(b)(5) and (6) (incorporating obligation to take, and describe, specific actions to protect against disclosure of nonpublic information in the filing per V.R.P.A.C.R. 7(a)(1)), and Rule 11(g)(2) (circumstances requiring additional filing of a certificate of service complying with V.R.C.P. 5(h) or V.R.P.P. 5(e)).

Reporter's Notes-2025 Amendment

Rule 2(c) is amended to clarify that the electronic case file contains the items in the Judiciary's case management system.