Submit Electronic Bench Copies

eMotion software was developed by the Franklin County Technology Services department for use by judicial officers in Benton and Franklin Counties Superior Court for the review and submission of electronic bench copies of motions and the associated documents.

The submission of documents through eMotion is NOT a substitute for filing documents with the Court Clerk.  The ORIGINAL of every document submitted through eMotion MUST be filed with the Clerk of the appropriate court.  A copy of every document submitted through eMotion MUST be served upon every party or his/her attorney.

Users will have access to only those documents that the user submitted through eMotion.  Other litigants will NOT have access to the documents submitted by other users.

Click HERE to Submit Bench Copies

1.  Do not electronically submit the following:  Notices of hearings, notes for motion docket, notices of presentment, or proofs of service (unless the sufficiency or timeliness of service is at issue).

2.  Electronically submit bench copies of all motions and supporting documents, trial briefs, trial motions and proposed jury instructions.  Also submit paper copies of cited and uncited jury instructions to the trial judge on the first day of trial.

3.  Assign descriptive names to all documents submitted. Use the actual title of each document, unless multiple documents are consolidated and submitted as one file. (Then call it something like "Motion to Compel with Supporting Documents")

4. Do not use the case name as the document name.

5.  It is the user’s responsibility to edit the hearing date whenever a matter has been continued.  Instructions for that can be found in the eMotion User’s Manual.

6.  Bench copies may, but need not be signed, so long as the originals filed with the Clerks have been signed.  Therefore, users may convert documents created with word processors to pdf files and submit them in that form.  Some may find this to be a useful alternative to scanning documents.

7.  Users should consolidate all documents submitted for a hearing into a single document, if possible.  That is, submit motions, legal memoranda and affidavits as a single file.  However, if a file is greater than 25 megabytes, it must be separated into multiple parts and each part submitted separately.  Try not to separate exhibits from affidavits.

8.  Do not submit hard copies if documents have been submitted electronically (except jury instructions).

9.  Once a document has been successfully uploaded, the document will be added to the list of the user’s active documents and displayed below the Document Submission panel.

10. Contact  Case Manager, Janette Lopez in Court Administration if you have questions.