The Multnomah County Circuit Court Criminal Data Entry Coordinator provided us with the following information which applies to electronic filings in Multnomah County Circuit Court for punitive contempt, misdemeanor and felony criminal cases.

Starting September 5, 2017, the court will monitor compliance with the service contact rule at UTCR 21.100(2)(a).  That rule requires eFilers to enter the name and service email address of their party’s designated service contact at the time of preparing the filer’s first electronic filing. **Documents submitted without service contact information are subject to rejection.**  If you are filing subsequent documents into a case in which you have not initially added your service contact information, please add it at that time so the other party may utilize eService for that case.

You may have already received a monograph on eService in an email dated May 3, 2017.  It contains detailed information, instructions and helpful links.  Please contact Gary W. Vanden Busch at the contact numbers listed below, if you would like a copy.  

In addition, the court held an Open Hours session August 2, 2017 which has now been approved for 1 CLE credit.  If you did not attend, a video is available to stream at this link: https://www.osbplf.org/cle_classes/eservice-for-criminal-filings/view/

On a related issue, please note that UTCR 21.100(6), regarding Proof of Service, has been replaced by UTCR 2.020, effective August 1, 2017.  The new rule is set forth below:  

UTCR 2.020 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

(1) A certificate of service must include:

(a) If the opposing party was served electronically by the court’s eFiling system pursuant to UTCR 21.100, a statement that service was accomplished at the party’s email address as recorded on the date of service in the eFiling system.

(b) If the opposing party was served by facsimile pursuant to ORCP 9 F, the telephone number at which the party was served.

(c) If the opposing party was served by email pursuant to ORCP 9 G, the email address at which the party was served.

(d) If the opposing party was served by any other means, the physical address or postal address at which the party was served, as applicable.

Please incorporate a certificate of service at the end of served documents and not separately.  See, UTCR 21.040(2).  Note there is no need to serve Waivers of the 60 Day Rule, Waivers of Appearance, Certificates of Victim Notification, Subpoenas, or Notices of Attorney Substitutions (for intra-firm substitutions).  Refer to ORCP 9A, which requires service on most other court filed documents.

When eServing the opposing party, remember you must select as the Filing Type “EFileAndServe” rather than the default “EFile.”  When the other party has not yet eFiled into a case and/or provided their service contact information, they must be served by a method other than eService.  Below is a model Certificate of Service that should work whether the opposing party has entered their service contact information or not.  

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I certify that I served a copy of the [Title of Document] on [Name of Party’s Representative] via the Oregon File & Serve system [or via email at the following email address: email@address.com].

Dated August 30, 2017.

/s/ Attorney Name
Attorney Name, OSB#123456
Attorney for [Party]
attorney@emailaddress.com

File & Serve provides a single solution for both filing and serving documents.  eService can reduce costs (no paper, envelopes or postage) and save time (no faxing or emailing via a separate system).  eService is accomplished by transmission of a File & Serve system-generated email to the email address of the service contact.  The email is sent moments after your submitted document has been reviewed and accepted by the court and contains a hyperlink to the court file-stamped document.  The recipient of an eServed document may click the hyperlink to access the PDF document.  Although service is accomplished whether the eServed document was opened or not, the sender has the ability to see whether and when the served document was opened.

We hope this information is helpful and that, once everyone complies with the service contact rules, eService will be another tool for improving efficiency and effectiveness in your practice.

Gary W. Vanden Busch
Criminal Data Entry
Multnomah County Circuit Court
1021 SW Fourth Avenue, Room 106
Portland, OR 97204
Phone: 503.988.6711