FOTEK COURT ONLINE Legal Portal User & Service Manual PDF Download (EN)

COURT ONLINE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS BY LEGAL PRACTITIONERS/FIRMS REGISTRATION Question Answer 1. Can a Candidate Legal Practitioner register with their role selection as being part of a law firm? Yes, every practitioner with an LPC number, including Candidate legal practitioners, can register as being part of a law firm. 2. What happens if I made an incorrect role selection upon registration? You will have to contact the help desk to delete your incorrect user profile and then select the correct role when you register afresh. 3. How do we register administrative staff that are part of our law firm but do not have an LPC number?

The details of the legal practitioner responsible for the administrative staff member can be used to register, but the email address must be that of the administrative staff member, i.e. the person who will use that particular portal user account. *Note that the practitioner’s name will appear on all submissions, not the name of the administrative staff member. 4. Can I change the details I entered when I registered, e.g. incorrect spelling? Some details can be changed under “My Profile”. The fields that appear in grey are locked and those details cannot be amended. 5. I keep getting the error “LPC number invalid” even though I captured my LPC number correctly. What does this mean?

Legal practitioners’ details entered must match the information in the LPC database exactly. If the details (name, surname, ID number) it is not an exact match to the details contained in the database against your LPC number, the error message “LPC number invalid” appears. You can approach the LPC to establish how your details appear in their database; alternatively contact the help desk to advise. 6. Should a group of advocates register as individuals or as part of an organization? It is ideal for advocates to register as individuals If there is a central administrator for members of the group, it may however be useful to register as an organisation.

*The administrator can see the case details (case number & parties) of all cases that members of the organisation has access to, but cannot see the hearing dates, documents or contacts and cannot perform any work (upload/ download) on the cases. 7. Can I change my email address after registration? No. Your profile is based on the email address used when registering and cannot be changed. 8. Can a firm register only one account for use by everyone in the firm? Yes, it is possible but it should be noted that the details of the legal practitioner whose LPC number is used during registration, will appear on all submissions. PORTAL NAVIGATION / CASELINES RELATED Question Answer 9.

How does one go about linking various members of a firm to the same pre-existing cases on CaseLines when we used a Cases that were pre-existing in CaseLines cannot be seen from “My Cases” in the Court Online Portal. You can however see those cases when selecting “View CaseLines Bundle” only if

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different email address to register on CaseLines than the one we used to register on Court Online? you, from your original CaseLines profile, invite your Court Online email address to those cases. 10. If the contact number does not work (no answer / dead line), who can we contact? Enquiries can also be made per email to Courtonline@judiciary.org.za 11. How do we add an advocate working outside our firm to a matter on Court Online? You can either invite the Advocate under “Parties and Contacts” or the Advocate can “Access a Case” 12. What steps must one take if the bundle is frozen due to non- compliance with prescribed time periods?

The presiding Judge may freeze a bundle so that no documents are added after the Judge reads the file in preparation for the hearing. The Judge’s Secretary should be contacted to obtain the Judge’s directions if there is an absolute need to provide another document after the bundle was frozen. CASE INITIATION & UPLOADING OF DOCUMENTS Question Answer 13. Can members of my firm see or work on cases of other members within the firm? No. The firm administrator can see the case details (case number & parties) of all cases that members of the firm has access to, but cannot see the hearing dates, documents or contacts and cannot perform any work (upload/ download) on the cases.

Members of a firm cannot see or work on cases of other members unless they are specifically invited to the case from “Parties & Contacts”. 14. Is it possible to create folder structures for filing of pleadings and notices under ‘my case documents’? No. Once a bundle is created, pleadings and notices etc. are added to the various sections. 15. What must we do if a duplicate file has been created on CaseLines and Court Online? No person may create a file directly in CaseLines for matters that are initiated in Court Online. Note that a bundle is created for each hearing in a matter and these are not “duplicate files”. 16.

What must we do if corrections or amendments are to be done in a case file? Details that are submitted cannot be amended afterwards. Likewise, documents that are uploaded cannot be removed from the file after submission. When the bundle is created, only the relevant documents need to be added to the bundle and incorrect documents can be excluded. 17. Why does the error message ‘Oh snap! Your document could not be uploaded’ appear when one tries to upload documents to an active case? Only PDF files can be uploaded to Court Online. If the document size is very large, the upload may “time out” and the error message will appear.

In such an instance, it is wise to attempt again when the network speed increases. 18. Do you need to wait a certain amount of time between uploads? No, there is no waiting time required between uploads. 19. Must we upload annexures separately as we previously did on CaseLines? Each document must be uploaded separately and the appropriate document type selected. 20. How are matters opened that are OBO matters for one, or more minors? (eg. biological mother claiming on behalf of her two minor There are 3 ways: 1. Select “Person” and capture as follows: First name: Sally Smart OBO Last name: Sizwe Smart

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children, in a Loss of support matter?). 2. Select “Person” and capture the parent’s name under Plaintiff 1 as First name: Sally Smart Last name: OBO Then capture the child’s name as Plaintiff 2 3. Select “Business or Company” and capture as follows: Trading name: Sally Smart OBO Sizwe Smart 21. Can the system have an option to check when one is about to create a new matter whether a similar matter has not been registered already? No, this is not a system functionality as many cases may have the same parties without being duplicate cases. Portal users can however check their case list under “My Cases” to see if the case is already created before starting a new case.

CASE BUNDLES Question Answer 22. What must we do if Court Online does not automatically create a CaseLines bundle? Bundles can only be created when a hearing date is assigned to a matter. Bundles are not created automatically. Once the hearing date is assigned, you have to click “Create Bundle” under “Next hearing date” on the “Case Details” page. 23. Does Court Online transfer the documents to CaseLines? If not, must we upload the documents onto CaseLines as well? There is no automatic “transfer” of documents from Court Online to the CaseLines bundle. You have to follow the following steps to ensure that your documents appear in the bundle: 1.

Under “My Case Documents”, select the yellow bundle button next to the particular hearing. 2. Select the documents to add to the bundle by clicking in the tick-box to the left of the document name. 3. Select the section to which each document must be added from the dropdown list under Select Bundle Section to the right of the document name 4. Click “Add Selection to Bundle”. 24. How we can go about uploading videos on Court Online, where such videos are annexures? Only PDF files can be uploaded in Court Online. For video annexures, upload a PDF document describing the video annexure.

When the bundle is created and accessed through Court Online, the video file may be uploaded to the relevant section in the bundle. Note that the video file will not be accessible in the Court Online file and will only be accessible directly from the bundle. 25. How long should one wait for the bundle to be created on CaseLines before escalating the issue to the Court Online help desk? Once you click “Create Bundle”, it can take up to 15 minutes for the bundle to be created. Once the bundle is created, the “View Bundle” button will appear. Remember that the bundle will remain empty until you add documents to the bundle from “My Case Documents”. 26.

Which bundle goes to the judge on the date of hearing? Would the judge have access to the master bundle or only the specific hearing bundle? The Judge will automatically access the hearing bundle. Once the hearing bundle is accessed, the Judge has the ability to view the master bundle.

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ENROLMENT Question Answer 27. What is the correct process to enrol a matter for hearing on Court Online? Upload all required documents, then upload the date application form, selecting the relevant document type (“Application for Hearing Date”; “Application for Trial Date”; “Application for Pre- trial Date”; or “Application for Admission Date”.) *NB! Ensure that all required documents in terms of the Uniform Rules of Court; Practice Manual of the High Court Division and the court’s Directives are uploaded before submitting the date application form. 28. How long does it take for the Registrar to allocate a court date for an unopposed motion on Court Online?

All date allocations are attended to within 1 court day. 29. Can we get some notification upon allocating a date for hearing? The system automatically sends a notification when a date is allocated. All notifications are available for viewing in the Portal by clicking on the bell. The system automatically sends an email notification as well. You can choose to receive SMS notifications in addition to the email notifications. Note that you can choose to receive notifications in real-time or once daily in the evening. These choices should be made in the “Contact details” section of “My Profile”. 30. What steps must one take if a Registrar advises that a matter does not appear on Court Online?

If a matter does not appear, it is likely that the case was returned/rejected. The notification that is sent when a matter is returned/rejected will provide reasons why the matter could not be issued. Once the issues are corrected, the case may again be submitted for issuing. Network interruptions while submitting a case may also result in the case not appearing on Court Online. In such a case you will not have any notification that the case was submitted successfully and you will have to start the case afresh. 31. What is the pre-hearing document that is required to be submitted? The pre-hearing document is any of the following:

Draft Order; Heads of Argument; Joint Minutes / Pre-trial Minutes; Notice of Set-Down; Practice Notes; or Notice of Withdrawal of Action

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