Courts, Legal Basics

questions & answers

Question: when a commisioner signes a court order with /s/ instead of a real signature, is this still a legal signature. I was reading that if a judge wasn't to sign a court order that it mean other things - this is why I ask.

Answer:

The Superior Court of Maricopa County Electronic Filing Guidelines state:

2.4 User ID and Electronic Signatures

The Court hosted eFiling system and any certified eFiling provider eFiling system shall register users and provide each with a personally selected user name (ID) and password.

The user name when used in conjunction with the personally selected password shall constitute a signature of the registered participant on documents submitted to the Court or by the Court. In order to ensure the intent of the filing participant, the signature line on an electronically filed document will bear the printed name of the filing participant preceded by the symbol "/s/". Electronic documents may be signed by Judicial Officers via the use of a printed signature preceded by the /s/ symbol or via the use of the Court's eFiling Manager (EFM) application judicial signature stamp. The EFM application judicial signature stamp will be merged with the electronic document and shall be visible when the document is printed and viewed electronically. Documents requiring the signature of the defendant or other identifying indicators, such as thumbprints on sentencing orders, shall be filed with the court in paper format, scanned, and maintained consistent with applicable record retention schedules and archival rules.