We’ve been getting a number of questions about the new fillable online forms for Supreme Court cases. The new forms have some slick features (e.g., you can type in a party name once and the name will get automatically inserted elsewhere in the form where that name is supposed to go), but the forms have a few quirks. Thankfully, the Attorney General’s website now offers a Forms "How To" Guide.
Here are a few of the questions we’ve been asked and what we've learned:
How do I start filling out the new court forms?
We've noticed that in several of the most commonly used new court forms you must click the “Fill In Form” button near the top of the form first. If you do not click that button you will discover that you can fill in some of the fields, but not all of them.
How do I save the form?
Many of the most commonly used new court forms have two ways to save the form. How you should save depends whether you intend to save and print your form or whether you will e-file the form:
Do I have to digitally sign the form?
No, you don’t have to sign the form digitally. If you are filing your form at a court registry, you can fill out the form on the computer, print it and then sign it manually.
I have a Mac computer; can I fill out the new court forms?
No, the new court forms don’t appear to work with a Mac. When we tried we were prompted to upgrade to the most recent version of Adobe Reader though we were already up to date. We tried but were ultimately unsuccessful in using the forms with a Mac.
We are continuing to learn all we can about using the fillable court forms and will pass along what we know. If you have any great tips on how to use the fillable court forms please share with a comment on this blog post!