eCourt is an integrated electronic software system configured to meet the needs of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal. It automates many of the Court’s procedures and provides a presence to the public, counsel and litigants through the internet and public portal.  eCourt has three separate but integrated functions: (1) case management (2) document management and (3) efiling. All three functions have been configured specifically to meet needs of the Court and the Registry.

The case management function is a software system which contains case specific information and data and which automates many of the work processes of the Registrar’s Office.  eCourt improves efficiency and general management of the Registrar’s Office and the Court processes in general by making the best use of technology.

The document management system is used to store and track all electronic documents and correspondence within the case management system. It gives all registered users who are parties to a file, or their legal counsel, remote, online access to the electronic court file.

The efiling component of eCourt enables anyone with access to the internet and a credit card (Visa or Mastercard) to submit documents electronically to the Registry. The efiling service is accessible 24/7 to anyone who wishes to become an approved filer.

No. At the present time eCourt is only available at the Court of Appeal.

There are two ways in which eCourt may be used by lawyers and the public. First, anyone with access to the internet and a credit card (Visa or Mastercard), and who is accepted as an approved filer, is able to file documents electronically through the eCourt web portal. Second, an approved filer who is a party to a file or their legal counsel, and who has been granted access to a file, has electronic access to the electronic court file.

No. A non-lawyer may apply to become an approved filer.

Efiling became mandatory effective April 2, 2012. Litigants who wish to file paper documents only must receive prior permission from the Registrar to do so. Exemptions may be granted to self-represented litigants who do not have the hardware and software or IT knowledge to use eCourt. Exemptions are not generally granted to litigants who are represented by counsel.

Yes. To obtain online access to the electronic court file, the person must: 1) be a party to the file or legal counsel to a party to a file, 2) register as an approved filer, and 3) be granted access to their file. Once hardcopy filings are scanned into eCourt, the approved party may view the file remotely by simply clicking the VIEW button opposite the document they wish to see.

You will need the following hardware and software to electronically file documents in eCourt:

• A computer with a standard operating system such as Microsoft Windows XP or Vista, or Macintosh OS X;
• A scanner to create PDF copies of certain documents, such as lower court orders, photographs and paper exhibits, etc., which may not exist in an electronic format;
• An internet service connection and web browser that supports 128-bit encryption;
• A PDF compatible word processor, such as Corel WordPerfect or Microsoft Word producing:
  • PDF documents
  • Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
  • Automatic page numbering
  • Hypertext links
  • Bookmarks

For information on the Court’s technical requirements, please refer to the Filing Guidelines for Electronic Versions of Appeal Documents found on the Electronic Documents tab on the web portal.

Civil Practice Directive #3 addresses efiling. For access to this Practice Directive, please refer to the Court’s website at www.sasklawcourts.ca.

Yes. The system has been configured to meet the full range of possible filings with the Court of Appeal.

The eCourt website uses a secure server to protect information travelling between the browser on your computer and the eCourt web site. All information is encrypted (scrambled) so that no one else can read the data being sent back and forth.

For credit card purchases, eCourt is a PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliant site. PCI DSS is a set of security standards designed to ensure that ALL companies that accept, process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. This protects your credit card information from someone monitoring internet traffic. Credit card information is not stored on eCourt or on the server and must be re-entered for each filing.

To become an approved filer, you must:

1. Have a valid email address; and
2. Obtain a user id and password from the eCourt website.

Registration for user accounts is submitted online to the registrar. User accounts fall under one of two categories: Law Firm Users and Self Represented Litigants. The registration process is different for each. Law Firm Users should contact their registered eCourt Law Firm Administrator who will create their individual account. Self Represented Litigants register using the online form to become an approved filer.

A Law Firm Administrator account is a user account with the following elevated privileges:

1. ability to create accounts for other Law Firm Users; and
2. ability to grant/deny Law Firm Users access to individual cases.

If you are unaware of who your Law Firm Administrator is please emails us at CARegistrar@sasklawcourts.ca.

If your firm does not have any users currently registered with eCourt you can register for a Law Firm Administrator account using the online form.

Yes, the Law Firm Administrator has the ability to create other accounts with similar access.

Yes, provided they first register with their Law Firm Administrator to become an approved filer.

There is no charge to register.

Review and approval will usually be completed within 2 business days. When your registration is complete, you will receive an email from the eCourt confirming your status as an approved filer. Please ensure that your spam filters do not block this email address.

No, but you may change it at any time.

Yes, provided they first register with their Law Firm Administrator to become an approved filer.

If a technical problem with eCourt prevents the Registrar from receiving an electronic filing, the Registrar may, upon satisfactory proof, permit the filing date of the document to relate back to the date you first attempted to file the document electronically. Problems with your equipment, hardware or software, or other problems within your control generally, will not excuse an untimely filing. The Registrar might permit you to file by email, fax or hardcopy to preserve a timeline, under certain circumstances.

It is your responsibility to take the necessary precautions to ensure that your user ID and password are kept secret. You should:

• Make sure that no one is physically watching as passwords are entered;
• Remember to exit the browser when leaving the computer. If the PC is left unattended with the browser running and a valid ID and password cached, anyone can gain access to your account;
• Change the password right away if you think someone else may know it;
• Change the password on a periodic basis;
• Use passwords that are difficult to guess and are a combination of letters, numbers and symbols.

You can ask the system to regenerate your password by clicking on ‘Request New Password’.

Law firms need only register once for a Law Firm Administrator Account. This can be done using the online form. Once that account is created they can use it to create individual accounts for lawyers and support staff.

You can only use a credit card to efile on eCourt. VISA and Mastercard are accepted.

No. The Registrar is no longer able to deduct court filing fees from a law firm’s draw down account established with the Local Registrar, Court of Queen’s Bench, Regina.

If you are permitted to hardcopy file, the Registrar will continue to accept payment by way of cash, cheque, money order or by credit card at the counter. However, if you submit documents for filing through eCourt, you can only pay by credit card.

You must be a party to a file or act as legal counsel to a party to a file to obtain online access through eCourt.

If you are the initiating party (i.e. filed a Notice of Appeal or motion for Leave to Appeal), you will automatically be entitled to online access to the electronic court file. You will be given a unique PIN number assigned specifically to you for that file. The PIN number gives you access to the electronic file. However, if you are the respondent or counsel for the respondent, you must apply to the Registrar for access rights to that file.

If any member of your firm has access to the electronic file you can request access through your Law Firm Administrator. If your firm is requesting access for the first time, or if you are a Self Represented Litigant, click the ‘Request Access’ tab, insert the case number, indicate your role (i.e. Lawyer for Respondent) and insert the unique PIN number assigned to you for the file.

If you are an approved filer, you may request online access by contacting the Registrar. Once your role has been verified (i.e. party to the file or lawyer for a party to a file), the Registrar will provide you with a unique PIN number for the file.

Yes, so long as PIN access is only given to those individuals within the firm on a ‘need to know’ basis. Just like the hardcopy file, lawyers and law firms should adopt and apply appropriate safeguards and security measures to ensure the clients’ information is protected and secure.

Alternatively, if any member of your firm has access to an electronic file your Law Firm Administrator can grant access to that file for other users within your organization.

The registrar’s office can help you locate your PIN number. Please contact them via email at CARegistrar@sasklawcourts.ca.

The Registrar may deactivate online access to a file when the lawyer or law firm no longer acts for the client or where the terms of use have been breached.

Online access to each electronic file is dealt with on an individual file basis. However, if a Law Firm already has requested access to a file their Law Firm Administrators can grant access to that file for other users within the organization.

The Registrar will de-activate file access upon being notified or becoming aware that you cease to act for a party to an appeal. It is your responsibility to advise the Registrar promptly if you are no longer counsel of record.

A law firm needs only request access to each electronic file once. After, their Law Firm Administrator can grant access to that file for other users within the organization.

Once you have been approved for filing and access, go to ‘My Cases’ which will display all of the cases you have filed in eCourt and click on the case you wish to view. You will see a summary page which contains specific data fields. To view a document, simply click the VIEW button opposite the document.

No. All sealed files, family law files (including adoption and child protection) and young offender matters will not be viewable online. Parties and counsel may, however, efile even though the file will not be viewable online.

Yes. So long as you are an approved filer and have been granted access rights to that file, you may have electronic access to the file.

Yes. All hardcopy filings are scanned into eCourt by Registry staff and are viewable by clicking the VIEW button opposite the document you wish to view.

eCourt service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week with the exception of regularly scheduled times that are used to maintain or change the service. Documents that are electronically submitted prior to 4:00 p.m. on a business day will be deemed to be filed on the same day, and any document submitted after 4:00 p.m. will be deemed to be filed the following business day.

All appeal-related documents and correspondence can be filed electronically.

Service must be effected in accordance with The Court of Appeal Rules. You will be unable to submit your document(s) for filing without filing proof of service or a reasonable facsimile.

The Court’s new criminal rules permit an exception to this general rule for offender appeals. The rules deem service on the Crown at the time an offender files a document with the Registrar. The automated features of eCourt will immediately transmit the filed documents to the Crown.

At the present time the lower court file is not available in electronic format nor will it be scanned into the Court of Appeal electronic court file.

Yes, the document definition and motion lists are available in a drop down menu on eCourt.

The original document must be submitted in paper form (i.e. Notice of Motion and supporting affidavit). In the case of appeal books and facta however, you need only file 3 copies.

There is no change to the number of copies required for paper filings of appeal book and facta (4, being the original plus 3 copies) with one stipulation: the original appeal book and factum must be unbound and un-perforated.

A document is considered to be submitted for filing when the document is received by the eCourt system. All electronic filings go into a pending queue with the Registrar. Like paper filings, Registry staff will review each document to determine if it is acceptable for filing.

You will receive a confirmation email to the email address provided at the time of submission. In some cases you will also receive a letter of confirmation.

If the Registrar accepts the document for filing, the filing date will relate back to the date the document was received by eCourt, subject to time filing restrictions described above. eCourt will affix an electronic stamp to the document filed indicating the date.

If the document is not accepted for filing, a rejection notice will be sent to the email address you provided when you submitted the document providing the reason for its rejection. If further clarification is required, you may call the Registrar’s office.

An electronic filing will be reviewed as soon as practically possible, dependent on court workload and staffing. The Registry operates on a ‘first in, first out’ basis.

You are not required to scan a document to PDF just to prove the presence of signatures. With the exception of affidavits and statutory declarations, documents filed solely with a typewritten (e.g. “Joan Smith”) or electronic signature satisfy the signature requirement.

The filing fee will be taken at the time of electronic submission. The system will not allow you to submit documents without payment of the applicable filing fee. As soon as you click the SUBMIT button, the payment gateway (Moneris) confirms the credit card information, determines if it is valid, and charges the fee against the credit card.

You will immediately receive confirmation of payment by email. Please note: even though payment is taken, this does not mean your documents have been accepted for filing. Once your documents have been accepted for filing, a receipt will be generated by eCourt which will either be mailed to you or sent by email.

Yes. The fees taken will be immediately refunded to your credit card.

No. No credit card information is stored either in eCourt or on the secure servers. Once you hit the SUBMIT button to make a payment, the transaction is processed through a secure payment gateway and the gateway confirms the credit card information, determines if it is valid, and charges the fee against the credit card.

The documents you submit must be in PDF format and as such are ‘read only’. While Registry staff can change data in the case management system (e.g. to correct errors), the Registry staff cannot alter a filed document or correspondence.

The information that displays in eCourt is extracted directly from the case management system (database) used and managed by the Registrar. Information is entered on a daily basis. As the information is entered into this system, it will be available immediately.

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in the database is consistent with statutory and court-ordered publication and disclosure bans. Where this is known to Registry staff, it will be displayed as an ALERT on the eCourt dashboard. However, the posting of information and data in eCourt is in no way a representation, express or implied, that the information in the database conforms with publication and disclosure bans. As bans may be granted at any stage in the proceedings, the information in eCourt may not include details of a ban granted during the course of proceedings in the lower court. It is your responsibility to personally check with the registry of the applicable lower court for bans to ensure that you comply with any bans on publication or disclosure.

The Registrar’s Office is prepared to assist users with the following inquiries: efiling, credit card payments, registration or any other general inquiry at:

phone: (306) 787-5382;

fax: (306) 787-5815;

e-mail: CARegistrar@sasklawcourts.ca

For questions concerning Filing Guidelines for Electronic Documents, please contact the Court of Appeal Senior Information Technologist, Scott Polowyk:

Phone: (306) 787-5437

e-mail: spolowyk@sasklawcourts.ca