Pay Again After a Rejected E-Filing? Card Holds Explained

Your filing was rejected, yet your bank shows a charge, and the e-filing screen is asking you to pay again to refile. Or you just want to know how much you will need to pay in total. This article explains what that charge is, when it goes away, and what each part of an e-filing bill is, using what the courts and the court's e-filing system publish themselves.

What the "charge" on your card is

Usually it is a hold, not a payment. The Odyssey eFileCA help center explains that each time you press Submit, a pre-authorization hold is placed on your payment account, and that when a filing is rejected, cancelled or fails to submit, that hold is not captured. A second help article says it directly: an account is never actually charged for a filing until the court accepts it.

The hold then has to drop off on your bank's side. The help center says most banks take 3 to 10 business days to release the funds, and prepaid cards can take 30 days. It also says that only your bank can shorten that time: the e-filing system's support team cannot release your funds or issue a refund.

Do I have to pay again to refile?

Yes, in the sense that the new attempt needs its own hold. The help center is explicit that the e-filing website does not keep your fees for another filing attempt. If you resubmit your corrected filing before the first hold drops, you will see two holds on your statement, but only the filing the court accepts is charged; the other is released.

Three things that cause confusion:

• Pressing Submit more than once. Each press places another hold. Submit once and wait for the status.
• Part of an envelope rejected. If the clerk accepts some documents and rejects others, the help center says the fees for the rejected documents are returned while the fees for the accepted ones stay with the court.
• A declined card. The court fee and the payment service fee are authorized separately, and both must be approved for the filing to go through, so one can show as pending even when the submission failed (help center).

How much do I need to pay?

An e-filing bill in California is made of separate pieces:

• Court fees, set by law and charged by the court. Whether a document carries one, and how much, depends on the document and the case. We walk through the statewide fee schedule in How Much Does It Cost to E-File Court Documents in California?
• The e-filing system's fees. The help center lists California's per-envelope e-filing fee as $3.50 to $5.00 depending on the county, not including court costs or convenience fees.
• A payment or card fee. California law allows a fee for processing a payment that does not exceed the cost of processing it (Code of Civil Procedure section 1010.6(e)(8)).
• The e-filing service provider's fee. Rule 2.255 of the California Rules of Court lets a provider charge a reasonable fee in addition to the court's filing fee.

With a fee waiver: if the court has granted you a waiver of court fees, section 1010.6(e)(6) says the court, the e-filing service provider and the e-filing manager must waive their fees for electronic filing too. The Los Angeles court's civil e-filing FAQ says a complaint and a fee waiver application may be submitted in the same envelope.

What it looks like with Legal Hub Group

• Every fee is shown on its own line before you pay: the court's fees, the system and card fees where they apply, and our $14.99 per filing.
• At Los Angeles civil and Madera courts you pay nothing at all if the court rejects: your card is only held, and charged only when the court accepts.
• At other California courts, the court's payment system holds the total on your card when you submit and charges only for what the court accepts; if the court rejects the filing, nothing is charged and your bank releases the hold on its own.
• Fixing and refiling a rejected filing never costs you another Legal Hub Group fee.

Before you file, Lexary by Legal Hub Group, free with every filing, checks your papers for what clerks reject filings for, so you are less likely to need a second attempt at all. See our e-filing service.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Keep reading All guides & answers