CLERK OF COURT & COMPTROLLER
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA
The Florida Supreme Court Standards for Electronic Access to Courts (August 2017) sets the standards for e-Filing for Clerks of Court to follow across the State of Florida.
Effective April 2019, the Clerk’s Office began electronically serving various court documents to Attorneys of Record and litigants registered for e-service through the Florida Court E-Filing Portal for all civil court cases.
The Florida Courts E-Filing Portal provides a list of answers to frequently asked questions and training videos which can be accessed through the following links:
E-Filing FAQs
County Court / Small Claims / Landlord Tenant Cases:
After filing an eviction complaint at the e-Filing Portal you will need to submit the summons for issuance in paper form to the Clerk’s office. Copies and envelopes with sufficient postage for each mailing also need to be provided to the Clerk. The fees for issuance will need to be paid at the time the summons is presented to the Clerk.
All other summonses will be prepared and issued by the Clerk electronically. A filer must prepare an individual “Request for Issuance of Summons Form” for each summons to be issued. You can locate the request form(s) needed on the Forms page under County Civil The request form will be filed to the action and associated with a docket entry at the e-Filing Portal (Request for Summons to be Issued). The statutory $10.00 Summons Issuance Fee will be computed on the Case Information Screen at the e-Filing Portal. Payment of this fee will also be processed at the e-Filing Portal. Once the form and payment is received by the Clerk’s office, we will prepare and issue the summons. The electronically issued summons will be e-mailed back to the filer. The filer is then responsible for effectuating service on the party.
Requests for issuance of service of process by publication will not be accepted through the e-Filing Portal. The Notice of Action must be submitted to the Clerk in paper form. The completed Notice of Action must include the response due date as defined by F.S. 49.09.
If a mailing is required under F.S. 49.12, the following must also be provided to the Clerk:
It will be the responsibility of the filer to forward the issued Notice of Action document to the newspaper for publication. If the petitioner/ plaintiff is determined to be indigent by the Clerk, the notice will be posted by the Clerk as directed under F.S. 49.10.
The request to the Clerk for issuance of service of process by publication must include a self-addressed, pre-stamped envelope for return of the issued Notice of Action to the filer.
You may select one of these document types:
Audit fees can be found on the Fees and Fines page under "Probate Guardianship and Trust".