Short answer. Yes, the court may electronically serve orders and other documents to all parties in a case, and that service carries the same effect and validity as any other mode under this Rule. A paper copy of what was electronically served must still be retained and attached to the case record.
What the law says
The court may electronically serve orders and other documents to all the parties in the case which shall have the same effect and validity as provided herein. A paper copy of the order or other document electronically served shall be retained and attached to the record of the case.
Rule 13, Section 18 — Court. Read the full provision →
The court's own option to serve electronically
This section is not about how one party serves another; it addresses the court's own act of serving orders and other documents on all the parties in a case. It gives the court the option to do that electronically, rather than requiring the court itself to rely exclusively on the sheriff, mail, or other conventional channels whenever it wants to communicate its own issuances to the parties.
Same effect and validity as any other mode
The rule is explicit that electronic service by the court carries the same effect and validity as provided elsewhere in this Rule. That means an order served electronically by the court is not treated as a lesser, tentative, or provisional form of notice — it counts fully and completely, the same as if it had been served personally or by registered mail through the sheriff.
The paper-copy retention requirement
Even when the court serves electronically, a paper copy of the order or other document must still be retained and attached to the record of the case. This preserves a permanent physical record of exactly what the court issued and when it did so, regardless of the electronic mode used to actually transmit that document to the parties involved. This retention duty binds the court and its personnel, not the parties themselves; a party is not required to separately preserve their own printout of an electronically served order simply because the rule requires a paper copy on the court's own file.
Why this matters for parties
Because electronic service by the court is fully valid and carries full legal effect, a party cannot argue that an order emailed by the court somehow does not count, or that only a personally-served or mailed copy triggers deadlines running under the Rules. Parties who have not disabled or ignored the channel the court uses should expect electronically served orders to carry exactly the same weight as any other properly served document.
Related provisions
- Rule 13, Section 18 — Court
- Rule 13, Section 17 — Proof of service
- Rule 13, Section 19 — Notice of lis pendens