About eFile

eFile is a service that enables you to submit civil court documents for filing to a British Columbia court registry via the Internet.  This service eliminates the need for you to visit a court registry in order to submit a document for filing.

In order to use eFile, you must become a registered user of the service by applying for a CSO account.  For more information on registration, see the CSO Registration Guide.

eFile service is currently available for Small Claims matters in the B.C. Provincial Court and for most civil matters in the B.C. Supreme Court, along with civil matters for the B.C. Court of Appeal.  eFile service for Provincial Court family matters is expected to be available soon. However, it is not available for Supreme Court probate or criminal matters.

The Rules of Court govern the conduct of litigation in the B.C. Court of Appeal, Supreme and Provincial Courts, including the use of eFile.  These rules will guide you through the steps of your case and set time limits for when certain steps must be completed.  The rules also contain the forms that must be used when creating court documents for filing.  We recommend that you become familiar with these rules before filing any court documents.

You can find the Court Rules at a courthouse library, or on the B.C. Courts website.  

Which documents can be eFiled?

In Supreme Court civil matters, a registered user may eFile any document except those excluded under Rule 23-3(5) of the Supreme Court Rules, and those excluded under Rule 22-4(5) of the Supreme Court Family Rules.

In Provincial Court, Small Claims, a registered user may eFile any document except an affidavit of service or Certificate of Judgment(see Small Claims Rule 22 (2) (b)).

In the Court of Appeal, a registered user may eFile any document except those excluded under Rule 54.1(5) of the Court of Appeal Rules.

When will eFiling be available for Provincial Family Court?

Under the new Provincial Court Family Rules, electronic filing of many Provincial Court family documents will be allowed when Court Services Online is capable of accepting the documents (Rule 22). Court Services Branch is preparing system changes to allow users to eFile Provincial Court family documents. When the service is available, notice and information about the service will be posted on this site.

What are the requirements for eFile?

• You must be a registered CSO user, with an active account.
• You must register a credit card that will be used to pay the eFile transaction fee ($7.00) and any applicable statutory filing fees for each document/form you submit or a BC Online deposit account. You must have created an electronic version of your document in PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format) for submission.

1. Transaction fee for the use of the CSO service.  A $7.00 fee will be charged for each eFile transaction. Please note:
   • There will be a $7.00 charge for each filing package submitted, regardless of whether the package is accepted.  A filing package is defined as one or more documents related to the same case and that are filed at the same time.  (Please note the $7.00 fee will not be charged to users with indigent status.)
   • The $7.00 fee will also be applied to documents that are re-submitted due to a courtesy correction or rejection.
2. Statutory filing fee(s).  Some documents or actions are subject to a filing fee as set out in the rules of court. Registered CSO users will be required to specify which statutory fees apply to the documents that they submit.  Any applicable statutory fees will be collected when the document is processed by registry staff.
   
   You can obtain more information regarding statutory filing fees at www.bccourts.ca or the following specific pages:
   • Supreme Court Civil Fees
   • Provincial Court Small Claims Fees.

• All eFile fees (transaction fee and statutory fee(s)) will be charged to the credit card registered on the CSO account used to submit the eFile package.
• Credit card processing is done through the Provincial Treasury's Internet Payments System (BC ExpressPay, which currently accepts VISA, Visa Debit, MasterCard, MasterCard Debit and American Express(AMEX) only.  Each CSO eFile transaction will appear on your Visa, Visa Debit, MasterCard, MasterCard Debit or AMEX statement.
• Registering your credit card information in your CSO account is required because registry staff must review the submitted documents and make the decision to accept them before processing payment of the filing fees.  As a result, there could be a delay of several minutes to several days between document submission and acceptance.  (For example, a document submitted after 4:00 p.m. on a Friday will be reviewed by staff the following Monday.)  Registry staff can only control timing of this payment if your credit card information is on file with your CSO account.
• You also have the option of using a BC Registries and Online Service account for payment of fees.

1. If a document is received at the registry at or before 4:00 p.m. on a day of which the registry is open for business, on the day of its receipt; or
2. If the document is not received at the registry at or before 4:00 p.m., on the next day on which the registry is open for business.

• Call toll-free at 1-800-663-6102 .