Rule 13-A

INTERIM RULE ON THE ELECTRONIC FILING AND SERVICE OF PLEADINGS,

JUDGMENTS, AND OTHER PAPERS IN CIVIL CASES

SECTION 1. Coverage. — This Rule shall govern the electronic filing

of all pleadings, motions, and other papers as well as their se ice, except
those for which a different mode of service is prescribed. This ule shall be
applicable exclusively in civil cases before the first- and second level
courts, with no suppletory effect on other types of cases.

SECTION 2. Filing and service, defined. — Filing is the act of

submitting a pleading or other paper to the court.

Service is the act of providing a party with a copy of the pleading or

any other paper. If a party has appeared by counsel, service upon such
party shall be made upon their counsel, unless service upon the party a d
the party's counsel is ordered by the court. When one counsel appears for
several parties, such counsel shall be entitled to only one copy of any
paper served by the opposite side.

When several counsels appear for one party, such party shall be entitled
to only one copy of any pleading or paper to be served upon the lead
counsel, if one is designated, or upon any one of them if there is no
designation of a lead counsel. The date and time of receipt of the pleading
or other paper by the lead counsel of record shall be the reckoning date and
time or purposes of counting reglementary periods.

SECTION 3. Manner of filing of complaints and other initiatory pleadings. —

The filing of complaints and other initiatory pleadings shall be done by:

a. Submitting personally the original paper, plainly

indicated as such, to the court;

b. Sending the paper by registered mail; or,

c. Sending the paper by accredited courier.

In the case of Section 3.a., the clerk of court shall endorse the date
and hour of filing of the complaint or initiatory pleading. In the case of
Section 3.b. or 3.c., the date of mailing of the complaint or initiatory
pleading and payments or deposits, as shown by the post office stamp on
the envelope or the registry receipt, shall be considered as the date of
filing, payment, or deposit in court. The envelope shall be attached to the
record of the case.

After the complaint or initiatory pleading has been filed through

any of the three modes provided in the first paragraph of this Section, the
filing party shall subsequently email the complaint or initiatory pleading
in digital file format to the court. Digital copies of the additional
 accompanying documents of the complaint or initiatory pleading, such as
annexes, appendices, or exhibits, shall likewise be emailed. The electronic
transmittal of the complaint or initiatory pleading and the accompanying
documents must be made within 24 hours from the completeness of the
primary mode of the complaint or initiatory pleading's filing.

The term "digital file format," when used to refer to pleadings,

papers, and other documents, shall mean the portable document format.

No court shall act upon any complaint or initiatory pleading unless

the latter's filing is accompanied by the electronic transmittal required in the
third paragraph of this Section. If the electronic transmittal is not completed
before the period, the complaint or initiatory pleading shall be deemed not
filed, regardless of the completeness of the primary mode of its filing.

SECTION 4. Manner of filing and service of pleadings subsequent to

the complaint or initiatory pleading, written motion, notice, appearance,
demand, offer of judgment, or similar papers.

a. The filing and service of non-initiatory pleadings, written

motion, notice, appearance, demand, offer of judgment, or similar
papers shall only be made by transmitting them in digital file
format through email. The date of the electronic mailing shall be
considered as the date of filing and service.

b. Digital copies of the additional accompanying documents

of non-initiatory pleadings, written motion, notice, appearance,
demand, offer of judgment, or similar papers—such as annexes,
appendices, or exhibits shall likewise be filed and served through
email.

c. Non-initiatory pleadings, written motion, notice,

appearance, demand, offer of judgment, and other similar papers not
emailed to the court shall be deemed not filed, and those not emailed
to the party or their counsel shall be deemed not served.

SECTION 5. Papers required to be filed and served — Every

pleading subsequent to the complaint, written motion, notice,
appearance, demand, offer of judgment, or similar papers shall be filed
with the court. These papers as well as every judgment, resolution,
order, and notice issued by the court, shall likewise be served upon the
parties affected, except for summons, which shall continue to be
governed by Rule 14.

SECTION 6. Presumptive service. — There shall be a presumptive

notice of a court setting to a party if such notice appears on the records
to have been successfully emailed to the party.
SECTION 7. Email address of record.

a. Notice. A notice of appearance shall be filed in all cases

containing the valid and professional email address of all counsels,
their law firms, if any, and the parties they represent.

b. Valid email address. An email address is deemed valid

when it is in the [local-part]@[domain] syntax and is capable of
receiving emails from other senders, especially those outside the
address' own domain. The email addresses, as filed in the notice of
appearance, shall serve as the email addresses of record of the
parties and their individual counsels and law firms.

c. Mandatory submission of counsels' email address. The

submission of email addresses of the counsels, and their law firms, if
any, shall be mandatory. The counsels of record are required to use
their professional email accounts as their email addresses of record.
To preserve the confidentiality, privacy, and security of
communications, the use by lawyers of personal and/or
nonprofessional email accounts as their email addresses of record is
prohibited.

d. Optional submission of parties ' email address;

exception. The submission of email addresses of the parties shall be
optional but highly encouraged, unless they are not represented by
counsel, in which case, submission is mandatory.

e. Electronic carbon copies. Transmittal of all documents,

filing or service by email shall include, through electronic carbon
copy (CC:), all the email addresses of record of all counsels and their
law firms, if any, and optionally, all parties.

f. Effect of non-use of email address of record. All

electronic transmittals must be made with any of the email
addresses of record of the counsels of record, or that of their law
firms, if any, or the e-mail address of record of the filing
party. If an electronic transmittal is made with an email address not
of record, the entire transmittal shall be deemed as not received
until such time that the transmittal is made using a valid email
address of record.

g. Obligation to monitor e-mail address of record. Counsel and

parties, the latter when not represented by a lawyer, have the
obligation to regularly and diligently monitor the inboxes of their
email addresses of record, including that of their law firms, if any,
with the courts. No court shall accept as an excuse for any purpose
that counsel or parties have not checked the inboxes of their email
addresses of record. Any lawyer who neglects to check regularly
and diligently the inbox of their email address of record shall be
subjected to disciplinary action.
 h. Change of electronic mail address. A party or counsel who
changes their email address for a compelling or justified reason
while the action is pending must promptly file a notice of change
of email address with the court within five calendar days from such
change and serve the notice on all other parties. A lawyer who fails
to comply with this rule, to the detriment of the cause of the client,
shall be subjected to disciplinary action.

SECTION 8. Transmittal to official court email address. — Digital

files must be transmitted by the filing party or counsel to the official
email address of the court where the case is pending. A directory of the
official email addresses of the lower courts maintained by the Supreme
Court of the Philippines is available at https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/court-
locator/.

SECTION 9. Electronic file format. -

a. The digital file of the primary pleading or other paper
must be separated from the electronic copies in digital file format
of any accompanying additional documents, each of which must be
contained in their own digital files.

b. The digital file may be electronically generated from a

word processing or portable document format creation program, or
be scanned images of the original document in paper compiled in a
digital file, or a combination of both methods. However, in all
cases, the contents must be completely legible. If the digital copy
is wholly or partially generated from scanned images of the original
document on paper, the filing party or counsel shall ensure that the
digital copy is an exact and complete copy of the original
document in paper. In case of discrepancies between the images of
scanned text and any machine readable text generated using
optical character recognition or similar technologies, the former
shall be the controlling text. The filing party or counsel shall retain
the original document for inspection by the court or other parties
when necessary.

c. The size of each digital file must be reasonable. The

party or their counsel responsible for filing is also responsible for
ensuring that the receiving court's official email address will not
reject or block a transmittal email due to the file size of an
attachment. Likewise, other parties or counsel, as recipients, are
responsible for ensuring that they will be able to receive a
transmittal email

d. The form and substance of the contents of the digital

files filed in court shall be controlling. If the court determines, on
motion or motu proprio and after notice and hearing, that there are
material discrepancies between the paper copy and the electronic
copy of a paper filed with the court, the court may impose an
appropriate sanction or refer such finding to the proper office for
disciplinary action against the lawyer, law firm, or party responsible
for the filing.

e. The digital file of a pleading r other paper shall have

the same filename as its designation, in accordance with Rule 7,
Section 2. At the option of the one filing, the designation of the
pleading or paper may be shortened for the filename, but must still
contain sufficient information to ascertain the nature of the relief
sought.

f. The digital file of each accompanying additional

document, if any, shall have the same filename as the document's
title, which must further be appended with the designation of the
pleading or paper to which it is attached or annexed. Finally, al
filenames must be appended with the docket number/s of the
case/s being filed. All information shall be separated with a hyphen
(-). Any special characters that cannot be used in a filename by
reason of technic limitations may be omitted entirely, or
substituted with an underscore( _ ), at the option of the one filing.
Example:

The digital file for the Complaint for Unlawful

Detainer for Civil Case No. 123456 should have the
filename "Complaint for Unlawful Detainer-civil Case
No. 123456.pdf'

The digital file of Annex A of the Complaint for

Unlawful Detainer for Civil Case No. 123456 should
have a filename "Annex A—Complaint for Unlawful
Detainer—Civil Case No. 123456.pdf'

g. Electronic copies of pleadings and other papers

transmitted to the court in the following cases: not in digital file
format; transmitted as digital files with password protection or
other encryption; with embedded executable code or scripts; in
archive files; or as corrupted files, shall be deemed as not filed.
Copies of additional accompanying documents transmitted to the
court not in digital file format; as digital files with password
protection or other encryption; with embedded executable code or
scripts; in archive files; or as corrupted files, shall be excluded from
the records or rollo of the case/s for which they have been
submitted, even if the digital file of the primary pleading or other
paper has been correctly filed. The filing of digital copies not in
accordance with the format and manner as stated here shall
subject the filing lawyer, law firm, or party to disciplinary action or
any appropriate sanction to be imposed by the court.

SECTION 10. Transmittal email format.

a.
Subject. The subject of the transmittal email shall contain
the docket number/s, case title/s, and the designation of the
pleading or paper being transmitted, which shall indicate its
nature.

Subject: [Docket Number/s and Case Title] — Designation of

the Pleading or Paper]

Example:

Subject: Civil Case No. 123456, Maria dela Cruz

v.
Juan dela Cruz — Complaint for Unlawful
Detainer

b. Body. The body of the email shall follow the prescribed

format and must contain sufficient information to enable the court
to ascertain the following: (l) the party or parties filing the pleading
or other paper; (2) the nature of the pleading or paper; (3) the
party or parties against whom relief, if any, is sought; and (4) the
nature of the relief sought:

(i) Primary manner of filing (i.e., electronic transmittal, or

personal filing, registered mail, or accredited courier)

(ii) Filing date, which should be in the MM/DD/YYYY format

(based on the primary manner of filing)

(iii) Case data, namely: (1) docket number/s; (2) case title/s;
(3) name of the filing party; (4) contact number/s of the
filer; (5) other email address of the filer, if any; and (6) a
list of the document titles of the attachments to the
transmittal email.

Example:

Primary manner of filing: Electronic transmittal

Filing date: 03/01/2024

Docket number: Civil Case No.

123456 Case Title: Maria dela Cruz
v. Juan dela Cruz
Name of Filing Party: Juan dela Cruz

Contact Numbers: (02) 888-9900 (landline), 0900-

1122334 (mobile)

Other e-mail address/es, if any: [filer's other e-mail

address/esl
 Title/s of Attachment/s:

1. Answer
2. Acknowledgment Receipt

c. Attachments.

(i) A transmittal email shall contain only digital copies

pertaining to one case. For the purposes of electronic
submission, consolidated cases with more than one
docket number shall be considered as one case. All
files must be enclosed as individual attachments to
the transmittal email.

(ii) All digital files must be transmitted as direct

attachments to the transmittal email, and not as
external links to cloud storage, filesharing sites, or
similar thereto. Digital copies must not be contained
in archive files, such as ZIP (.zip) or RAR (.rar), and
must not require additional extraction or conversion
into portable document format. Failure to file any
document as a direct attachment shall result in the
document being deemed not filed.

(iii) In case the total file size of the documents exceeds

the maximum size allowed for attachments by the
email service provider being used by the one filing,
the filer shall transmit the electronic documents in
several batches, but each email must indicated in the
subject the batch number of the email and the total
batches of emails sent, following the prescribed
format in this Rule. It is the responsibility of the one
filing to ensure that the receiving court's official email
service provider will not reject or block a transmittal
email due to its size. The time and date of the final
transmittal email, as indicated in the sequence, shall
be considered as the time and date of filing of the
pleading or other paper.

Example :

Subject: Civil Case No. 123456, Maria dela Cruz v.

Juan dela Cruz — Answer (batch 1 of 3)

Subject: Civil Case No. 123456, Maria dela Cruz v.

Juan dela Cruz — Answer (batch 2 of 3)

Subject Civil Case No. 123456, Maria dela Cruz v.

Juan dela
 Cruz — Answer (batch 3 of 3)

d. Retention requirement. In all instances, the filing party or

counsel must retain a copy of each transmittal email, in any form
prescribed by pertinent rules on evidence, while the case is
pending for

the inspection of the court or other parties when necessary.

SECTION 11. Service of Judgments, Final Orders, or Resolutions.

Judgments, final orders, or resolutions shall be served electronically by
emailing digital copies to the email addresses of record of the parties and
their counsels.

The date and time of delivery appearing in the internet message

header of the email sent by the court shall be the date and time of receipt
of the judgment, final order, or resolution. Under exceptional circumstances,
the court, upon motion and hearing, may allow the inspection of headers of
the court's transmittal email by a counsel or party. Motions for inspection
filed on frivolous grounds shall subject the filing counsel to disciplinary
action.

In case the electronic service to a counsel, or a party not

represented by counsel results in an email delivery failure message, the
court shall attempt re-transmittal to the unserved counsel twice, with a
five-day interval between each attempt. If, after the second attempt, the
email continues to be rejected by the receiving server, the date and time
of the first successful service to the party shall be considered the date
and time of receipt of counsel or party. The court shall indicate the facts
and circumstances warranting the re-transmittal in the body of each re-
transmittal email and shall copy all email addresses of record of the
parties and their counsel as notice of the re-transmittal; provided, that if
a counsel provides more than one email address of record, the first
successful service to one email address shall be considered as service to
all email addresses of record of that counsel.

In case the electronic service to a party, represented by counsel,

results in an email delivery failure message, the court shall attempt re-
transmittal to the unserved party twice, with a five-day interval between
each attempt. Nevertheless, the date and time of first successful service
to counsel shall be controlling. The court shall indicate the facts and
circumstances warranting the re-transmittal in the body of each re-
transmittal e-mail and shall copy all email addresses of record of the
parties and their counsel as notice of the re-transmittal.

When a party summoned by publication fails to appear in the

action, judgments, final orders, or resolutions against them shall be
served upon them also by means of publication at the expense of the
prevailing party.
 SECTION 12. Conventional service or filing of orders, pleadings,
and other papers. — Upon motion of the filing party or counsel, a court
may expressly waive the requirement of electronic transmittal of the
following submissions:

(i) annexes, appendices, exhibits, or other accompanying

documents to pleadings or other court submissions not readily
amenable to digitization in the prescribed digital file format; and (ii)
sealed and confidential documents or records.

These submissions may be filed either personally, by registered mail,

or by accredited courier in the manner provided in Sections 3 .a., 3.b., or
3.c.

These submissions may likewise be served personally, by

registered mail, or by accredited courier, Personal service of court
submissions is made through the following modes: personal delivery of a
copy to the party or to the party's counsel, or to their authorized
representative named in the appropriate pleading or motion; or by
leaving it in their office with their clerk, or with a person having charge
thereof. If no person is found in their office, or their office is not known, or
they have no office, then the copy may be delivered between the hours
of 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. at the party's or counsel's residence, if known,
with a person of sufficient age and discretion residing in the said
residence.

Service by registered mail shall be made by depositing the copy in

the post office, in a sealed envelope, plainly addressed to the party or to
the party's counsel at their office, if known, otherwise at their residence,
if known. Postage must be fully prepaid and with instructions to the
postmaster to return the mail to the sender after 10 calendar days if
undelivered. If no registry service is available in the locality of either the
sender or the addressee, service may be done by ordinary mail.

Service by accredited courier shall be made by availing the

services of a courier service duly accredited by the Supreme Court for the
express delivery and/or messengerial delivery of letters or written
messages and other mailable matters.

The court shall ensure that all orders expressly waiving the
electronic transmittal requirement for particular filings are included in the
electronic case record or rollo.

SECTION 13, Completeness of service. — Electronic service is

complete at the time of the electronic transmission of the document.
Electronic service is not effective or complete if the party serving the
document learns that it did not reach the addressee or the person to be
served.
 In cases where the court has expressly waived the requirement of
electronic transmittal under Section 12, personal service is complete
upon delivery. Service by registered mail is complete upon actual receipt
by the addressee or after five calendar days from the date they received
the first notice of the postmaster, whichever date is earlier. Service by
accredited courier is complete upon actual receipt by the addressee, or
after at least two attempts to deliver by the courier service, or upon the
expiration of five calendar days after the first attempt to deliver,
whichever is earlier.

SECTION 14. Proof of filing. — The filing of a pleading or any other

paper shall be proved by its existence in the electronic case record or
rollo.

a. If the complaint or initiatory pleading is not in the record but is

claimed to have been filed personally, the filing shall be proven
by the written or stamped acknowledgment of its filing by the
clerk of court on a copy of the pleading or paper.

b. If the complaint or initiatory pleading was filed by registered

mail, the filing shall be proven by the registry receipt and by
the affidavit of the person who mailed it. Such mail must
contain a full statement of the date and place of deposit in the
post office, in a sealed envelope addressed to the court, with
postage fully prepaid, and with instructions to the postmaster
to return the mail to the sender after 10 calendar days if not
delivered.

c. If the complaint or initiatory pleading was filed through an

accredited courier service, the filing shall be proven by an
affidavit of service of the person who brought the pleading or
other paper to the service provider, together with the courier's
official receipt and document tracking number.

d. If the non-initiatory pleading or any other paper was filed by

email, the same shall be proven by an affidavit of electronic
filing of the filing party, accompanied by a paper copy of the
pleading or other document transmitted, or electronic
acknowledgment of the submission's filing by the clerk of court.

e. The clerk of court or branch clerk of court shall have the

primary responsibility of ensuring that all pleadings and other
court submissions electronically transmitted to their court are
properly accounted for and are included in the case record or
rollo. A digital copy of the transmittal email clearly showing the
sender and the date and time of receipt of the email by the
receiving court shall be included as the cover sheet of the filing
and shall form part of the case record or rollo.
 SECTION 15, Proof of service. — Proof of service shall consist of the
metadata in the email header showing the date of sending and
receipt of the email in digital filing. When necessary, the court may
require the filing of an affidavit of service executed by the person
who sent the email, together with a printed proof of transmittal.

In cases where the court has expressly waived the requirement of

electronic transmittal under Section 12, proof of personal service shall
consist of a written admission of the party served, or the official return of
the server, or the affidavit of the party serving, containing a statement of
the date, place, and manner of service.

SECTION 16. Notice of lis pendens. — In an action affecting the title

or the right of possession of real property, the plaintiff and the defendant,
when affirmative relief is claimed in their answer, may record a notice of
pendency of action in the office of the registry of deeds of the province
where the property is situated. The notice of lis pendens shall contain the
names of the parties and the object of the action or defense, and a
description of the property in the affected province. Only from the time of
filing such notice for record shall a purchaser, or encumbrancer of the
affected property, be deemed to have constructive notice of the pendency
of the action and only of its pendency against the parties designated by
their real names.

The notice of lis pendens may be cancelled only upon order of the
court, after proper showing that the notice is for the purpose of molesting
the adverse party, or that it is not necessary to protect the rights of the
party that recorded it.