Cal. Rules of Court, rule 2.256 · Chapter 2. Filing and Service by Electronic Means
Responsibilities of electronic filer
Text — As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
(a) Conditions of filing
Each electronic filer must:
(1) Comply with any court requirements designed to ensure the integrity of electronic filing and to protect sensitive personal information.
(2) Furnish information the court requires for case processing.
(3) Take all reasonable steps to ensure that the filing does not contain computer code, including viruses, that might be harmful to the court's electronic filing system and to other users of that system.
(4) Furnish one or more electronic service addresses, in the manner specified by the court. This only applies when the electronic filer has consented to or is required to accept electronic service.
(5) Immediately provide the court and all parties with any change to the electronic filer's electronic service address. This only applies when the electronic filer has consented to or is required to accept electronic service.
(6) If the electronic filer uses an electronic filing service provider, provide the electronic filing service provider with the electronic address at which the filer is to be sent all documents and immediately notify the electronic filing service provider of any change in that address.
(b) Format of documents to be filed electronically
A document that is filed electronically with the court must be in a format specified by the court unless it cannot be created in that format. The format adopted by a court must meet the following requirements:
(1) The software for creating and reading documents must be in the public domain or generally available at a reasonable cost.
(2) The printing of documents must not result in the loss of document text, format, or appearance.
(3) The document must be text searchable when technologically feasible without impairment of the document's image.
If a document is filed electronically under the rules in this chapter and cannot be formatted to be consistent with a formatting rule elsewhere in the California Rules of Court, the rules in this chapter prevail.
Notes and commentary — not rule text
History
(Subd (a) amended effective January 1, 2018; previously amended effective January 1, 2007, January 1, 2011, and July 1, 2013.)
(Subd (b) amended effective January 1, 2017; previously amended effective January 1, 2006, January 1, 2008, and January 1, 2010.)
Rule 2.256 amended effective January 1, 2018; adopted as rule 2056 effective January 1, 2003; previously amended and renumbered effective January 1, 2007; previously amended effective January 1, 2006, January 1, 2008, January 1, 2010, January 1, 2011, July 1, 2013, and January 1, 2017.
Advisory Committee Comment
Subdivision (b)(3). The term "technologically feasible" does not require more than the application of standard, commercially available optical character recognition (OCR) software.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
- Official file
- https://courts.ca.gov/cms/rules/index/two/rule2_256
- Text hash
- sha256 dc94a88e94b31707065d577f9b29cf4f9852487033d6d11db936f8994bd57db0
- Composed by
- compose_crc.py 2026-10-22: the Judicial Council's rule pages read paragraph by paragraph; verify_crc.py's second reading of the Council's per-title PDFs finds every paragraph
BenchPath cards that rely on this text
Cited by 5 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Cal. Rules of Court, rule 2.256. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
California Rules of Court
- Cal. Rules of Court, rule 2.100Form and format of papers presented for filing in the trial courtsPrinted as rule 2.256(b)
- Cal. Rules of Court, rule 2.114ExhibitsPrinted as rule 2.256(b)
- Cal. Rules of Court, rule 2.140Judicial Council formsPrinted as rule 2.256
- Cal. Rules of Court, rule 2.259Actions by court on receipt of electronic filingPrinted as rule 2.256(a)(4)
- Cal. Rules of Court, rule 3.1110General formatPrinted as rule 2.256(b)
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.