High Court (Electronic Filling) Rules, 2012

This section is an interpretation heading for Part II on electronic filing.

This section is about documents that are not permitted to be e-fiied.

Section 8 is titled “Hyperlinks, bookmarks and other navigational aids.”

Section 9 is about User 1D and electronic signatures for file transmission, confirmation, acceptance, and rejections.

12. Original documents to be maintained by filing party PART III SERVICE

Certain listed documents must be filed conventionally unless the Court expressly requires electronic filing.

Some court documents may be filed electronically instead of conventionally.

The Registrar must keep electronically filed court documents in electronic format and treat them as the Court’s original official record.

A filing party must format electronically filed documents to match applicable filing and procedure rules; the Registrar cannot reject a document only because it does not substantially conform to a specific rule.

Participants may electronically file documents in specified formats, and parties and other case participants must submit proposed orders electronically in Word format.

Electronically filed documents may include hyperlinks and similar aids, but hyperlinks are not part of the filed document or court record. The Registrar must register every party and practitioner and give each a chosen username and password.

This section sets rules for electronic filing: the Registrar must scan uploaded documents for viruses, notify filers about receipt or status, and stamp accepted filings. Participants may use electronic signatures, and electronic filers remain responsible for proper filing and copies.

If a party files documents electronically, it generally must not send a courtesy paper copy unless the Court orders it, and must keep original signed documents available.

Copies of this Statutory Instrument can be obtained from the Government Printer in Lusaka for K5000 each.

Section 22 is titled “Special instructions where rules not complied with.”

Judicial transfers outside an e-filing COMI are mentioned, but no operative rule is provided in the source text.

This section gives the title of the rules and says they are made under section 44 of the High Court Act.

If e-filing supports electronic service, that service must follow applicable court rules; if it does not, the filing party must serve the other parties in the usual conventional way.

An electronically served document is treated as received when it reaches the relevant server, and the served party must disprove service if it wants to challenge it.

This section defines key terms used in the Rules, including “case management system,” “e-filing,” “filing,” and “Registrar.”

The Registrar must make electronically filed and scanned documents available to case participants, the Court, and the public, and maintain access to an electronic document management system. The public may access public-record documents as the Registrar stipulates.

Documents required to be lodged with the Court, and any draft order, must be sent electronically through the provided filing system.

An electronically filed document must be kept in a printable format that preserves the same content and formatting as the original file.

The Registrar must issue certified copies of electronically filed documents in the conventional manner, and when an e-filing requires a fee, must assess it and notify the filing party before accepting the document.

The Court and Registrar are not liable for electronic filing transmission or receipt errors, and the Court may allow a document to be filed later as if it had been sent on the original electronic filing date in certain error cases.

The Court may issue, file, and serve documents electronically in e-file cases, subject to the Rules. If a Registrar must endorse a document, the Registrar’s typed name counts as the signature on the electronic document.

The Court or Registrar may set special e-filing instructions, must notify the parties of special circumstances, may decide whether filing deadlines can be extended after rejected e-filed documents, and may require refiling or conventional filing.

If a court transfers a case from an e-filing court to a court that does not use e-filing, filing parties must file documents conventionally instead of electronically.

Filing fees for conventional documents also apply to electronic documents, and an electronically filed document that needs a fee may be rejected if the fee is not paid within two days of submission.