E-Filing of Mortgage & Conveyance Instruments

I

On November 1, 2009, I will begin offering an electronic filing service for real estate documents.  (We have for some time allowed e-filing of court documents.)  E-filing of real estate documents was authorized recently by La. Code of Civil Procedure Article 258 and by the supporting Opinion of the Louisiana Attorney General, No. 08-0340.  Malcolm Meyer and I drafted and advanced the new Civil Code legislation, and Malcolm sought and recently secured the attorney general’s opinion supporting the e-filing option.  The Jefferson Parish clerk of court is the first clerk’s office to provide this service.

Real Estate e-filing will be a new feature of our JeffNet subscription service.  JeffNet provides Internet access to a variety of clerk of court records, including real estate records back to 1951.  (We eventually will offer remote electronic access all the way back to the earliest records [1825].) 

You already might be one of our 840 JeffNet subscribers.  If you are not, you can register on our website, www.jpclerkofcourt.us, by clicking on Subscribe to JeffNet.  Filings are processed during normal business hours.  Per statute, they are treated in the same manner as regular mail filings. After acceptance of the document, confirmation of filing is forwarded electronically to your e-mail address.  The images of the .pdf documents you submit with your filing are “stamped” with the date and time and entry number.  You will be able to view a summary of all your credit card charges in entry number and date order by logging in to your account.   

Your JeffNet and e-filing passwords provide multiple levels of security for your transactions.  Your credit card information is secure, since you provide it directly to VeriSign, our fiscal intermediary.  No one in the Clerk’s Office has access to it.

II

E-filing includes several other features designed to minimize or obviate telephone inquiries and trips to the courthouse or satellite office:

  *You can obtain certified copies of all your filings electronically. 

  *E-filing provides these significant advantages: Filing, charging, and confirmation are very quick; and there is no need to follow up with paper documents, as the e-filed document is considered to be the original.

  *E-filing reduces paper and offers a timelier, more accurate way of doing business. It is another step in our effort to become an environmentally friendly office.  Our leading-edge technology provides you with access to a “virtual” courthouse and reduces the time and expense of actual courthouse visits.  We have high expectations here in the Clerk’s real estate division and look forward to your participation. 

III

Malcolm Meyer will contact you soon to schedule a meeting of title lawyers and other interested parties to explain matters further and to receive your questions and input.  Meanwhile, if you have any questions or comments, please e-mail them to webmaster@jpclerkofcourt.us.  We will respond promptly. 

Pursuant to La. Code of Civil Procedure Article 258

User Registration and Terms and Conditions of Use

General Information

Mortgage and conveyance e-filing capabilities are now available to subscribers of the Jefferson Parish Clerk of Court’s remote access system (JeffNet).  E-filing affords parties the option to file original notarial acts and other documents, releases, UCC filings, and requests for mortgage and conveyance searches electronically using a secure Internet connection. 

Patrons log on to the e-fling system using their name and a password (separate from the subscriber’s JeffNet access password) that they select and control.  Password security is the sole responsibility of the filer.  The Clerk of Court bears no responsibility for security breaches. 

To e-file, the filer specifies type of filing, and, if a notarial act, a book type (mortgage, conveyance, mineral, etc.).  Filer also will indicate number of conformed and certified copies, which will be returned via e-mail to the filer. 

The documents that you submit with your e-filing must be in PDF format, the standard for e-filing in most jurisdictions, including the federal courts.  E-filed PDF documents may be submitted in an unalterable format.  However, they cannot be password protected because we must be able to open the file in order to time stamp each document page before writing it to our image database and view the instrument for acceptance.

Filing is not deemed complete until the clerk of court’s personnel review the submission, supplement charges for indexing, etc., and accept the document for filing.  Filings submitted by the filer after-hours will be deemed filed and accepted the next business day, in the sequence submitted and in the order required by La. Code of Civil Procedure Article 258(B).  The submitted real estate document(s) need not be followed by an original paper version.  After filing is complete, the image is the original document.

Any notarial or real estate document with original maps, plats, property descriptions, or photographs as related to the work of a professional surveyor engaged in the "Practice of Land Surveying" as defined in R.S. 37:682 cannot be electronically filed.  Therefore, the filer must certify that he is not submitting any original maps, plats, property descriptions, or photographs as related to the work of a professional surveyor engaged in the "Practice of Land Surveying" as defined in R.S. 37:682 recording. 

When registering for e-filing of real estate documents, filers will be prompted to increase the JeffNet advance deposit amount based on the anticipated level of e-filing usage.  This is necessary to insure that there are adequate funds to cover the cost of filing and associated charges.

Other Terms and Conditions

The clerk strives to have JeffNet available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year.  However, there will be occasions when JeffNet is unavailable due to system maintenance or other factors. The Clerk of Court does not guarantee that the system always will be operable.  Therefore, all users should retain their incomplete e-filings until confirmation is received.

E-filing allows JeffNet patrons to interact directly with the mortgage and conveyance system.  A high degree of accuracy is expected.  The Clerk of Court reserves the right to deny e-filing access to any filer whose error rate is deemed unacceptable. 

By requesting for e-filing, the filer certifies that the written instrument from which the electronic record is taken conforms to all applicable laws relating to the form and content of instruments which are submitted in writing, and, in fact, where the law requires, all documents were signed in ink in the traditional sense.  The filer further certifies that all parties to transactions submitted for e-filing have consented to having their documents electronically filed.

 The clerk of court will not be responsible for a filer’s incorrect certification.

Because this certification is required by law, the e-filing registration form requires that your signature be included along with verification that you have read and agreed to all of these conditions.