Supreme Court Clerk's Office

Fax and Email Filing

Fax

Fax filings require prior permission from the Clerk. You may call the Clerk’s Office at (360) 357-2077 for permission. You must give the case number, the name of the document and the amount of pages when calling for permission. There is no fee for filing by fax. Our fax number will be provided to you if you are granted permission to file by fax. Any faxes sent without prior permission will not be accepted for filing.

Faxed documents should be sent on "high resolution." Please make sure to start your fax before 4:00 p.m. on the day the document is due.

The fax copy constitutes the original in the court file. There is no need to send the original by mail. You should keep the original in your file.

Briefs may not be filed by fax because we need the original to make the required copies.

Protocols for Electronic Filing

The following protocols are promulgated pursuant to Supreme Court order, dated September 4, 1997. If these protocols are followed, the Supreme Court Clerk's office will accept certain filings by email at this address: Supreme@courts.wa.gov. No fees are charged for electronic filing.

Filing by Attachment to Email
(May be used without agreement of the parties)

You may file a document with the court, but not serve it on another party, by attaching it to an email message. Any document (except original actions, petitions for review, personal restraint petitions or those pleadings that require a filing fee) may be filed as an attachment to email if:

• The body of the email message to which the document is attached is no more than 100 words and includes:
  • case name
  • case number
  • name, phone number, bar number and email address of the person filing the document.

• Any appendices attached to a brief, motion or pleading may not exceed a total of 25 pages. (Any appendix over 25 pages will require pre-approval by either the clerk or deputy clerk).

• The attached document complies with the Rules of Appellate Procedure, except where these protocols provide otherwise.

• The attached document is subscribed with the name and bar number of the sender and the original signed document is retained in the sender's file.

• Notice and service should be made on other parties in the normal fashion as currently required by the Rules of Appellate Procedure. Proof of mailing or proof of service may be filed as an attachment to email.

No signature is required on an attached document, if all protocols are followed. The date and time the attachment to email is received will be the date and time of filing. Any filing received after 5:00 P.M. will be filed the next day.

The use of PDF format or Microsoft WORD is encouraged, but not required. If the conversion software used by the court is unable to convert a document, the party submitting the document will be notified to submit the document in hard copy form, but the date and time of filing will be when the email attachment was received.

• After we have received the email filing and printed the document, we will send a reply to the email stating “Received”. If you do not receive this reply within 30 minutes of sending your email filing, please contact our office at (360) 357-2077 to confirm receipt of your email.

Service by Email Message
(Requires agreement of the parties)

If all counsel and/or the parties agree to service by email prior to the submission of a document to the court, then you may serve the document by sending it to the other parties using the “cc:” line. You do not need to file an additional certificate of service.