Using the case portal

The Case Portal is the official electronic system used for filing, docketing, judicial administration, case management, and access to judicial records. A document becomes filed when it is properly submitted through the authorized system, accepted, and entered upon the official docket.

Saving a draft is not filing, uploading a document without completing submission is not filing, and privately sending the PDF to a judge is not filing. Posting the document in Discord and typing "filed" underneath it does not create a procedural miracle.

The docket is the authoritative chronological history of a judicial proceeding. It identifies material events such as filings, orders, hearings, deadlines, judgments, and other procedural actions.

The broader judicial record may include docket entries, filings, orders, evidence, exhibits, hearing records, judgments, and other official material. Docket entries should remain permanent. A filing does not disappear simply because it is later amended, withdrawn, sealed, or superseded. That permanence allows someone reviewing the case months later to reconstruct what actually happened instead of staring at a mysteriously perfect history that clearly survived several rounds of editing.

A filed document should not be silently edited after acceptance. If counsel needs to correct or amend a filing, the corrected version should be submitted through the authorized procedure and linked to the original.

The original remains in the record because judges, parties, and appellate reviewers may need to know exactly what was before the court at a particular time. Withdrawal likewise does not erase history. A withdrawn filing remains identifiable, and any judicial order already entered because of it does not automatically vanish.

Filing and service are distinct. Filing places a document into the judicial proceeding, while service provides the material to persons legally entitled to receive it.

A filing may therefore be properly submitted but improperly served. A document merely being visible somewhere within the Case Portal does not automatically satisfy a legal service requirement unless the governing procedure establishes portal delivery as valid service. "Well, they could have found it eventually" is generally a poor substitute for proper notice.

Judicial proceedings depend upon deadlines so that parties and courts know when action is required. Counsel should monitor filing periods, response deadlines, hearing dates, appellate deadlines, and other time-sensitive obligations.

Where additional time is necessary, counsel may seek an extension according to the Rules. Filing an extension request does not itself extend the deadline. If a filing is due at 8:00 PM and the extension request is filed at 7:55 PM, the deadline remains 8:00 PM unless the court actually grants relief.

Electronic systems occasionally fail, usually at the exact moment somebody needs them most. Where a genuine technical failure prevents filing, service, access, or another required act, the affected person may seek relief from the proper judicial authority.

The person should preserve information showing what was attempted, when the attempt occurred, what case was involved, and the nature of the technical problem. System logs may help establish what happened, but the court determines the legal consequence. A loading spinner remains a loading spinner, not a judicial ruling.

Judicial material may be ordinary, restricted, or sealed. Restricted material remains part of the case but is accessible only to persons whose role, assignment, party status, or specific authorization permits access.

Sealed material is removed from ordinary access through judicial order and may be accessed only as authorized. Protected personal, investigative, security-sensitive, or privileged information should not be unnecessarily placed in public filings. Where the court needs the information, measures such as redaction, restriction, sealing, or substitution may protect it while preserving the court's ability to decide the issue.