California Court E-Filing Fees on Credit Card Statements and Green Filing Service Fees

Last Update: October 20th, 2020

By far the most common support question we receive is related to the fees associated with electronic filing in the Odyssey eFile program. Odyssey courts collect all fees using their Tyler Online Payment Gateway (TOGA). A filer can expect to see two charges from them for each accepted transaction with the court.

The first charge (letter A) comprises the Court’s Filing Fees. The second (letter B) is for any applicable Odyssey eFileCA EFM Fees plus any Provider Service Fees plus any Court Transaction Fees plus any Court Convenience Fees.

Fees
On a filer’s on-line credit card transaction list, they will see the pending pre-authorization of fees listed. Once the court accepts the filing, they will complete the pre-authorization.

credit card transaction list

Upon the court’s acceptance, they will complete the pre-authorization with two charges on the credit card. One charge is the for the Court’s Filing Fees, and the other is for the Service Fees. The credit card’s statement will display the fees in the following manner:

FILEFEE000123456 = $90.00
CAEFILE000123456 = $6.50

The 000123456 represents the envelope number of your filing. This is what you can use to track the charge to a specific filing.

Service Fees Breakdown

Odyssey eFileCA EFM Fees

To fund the Odyssey eFileCA e-filing system, the State of California charges an EFM fee. This fee will display as $3.50 in the Service Fees section.

Provider Service Fees

The Provider Service Fee is our fee for using our service. The court also only collects this fee for accepted filings. However, if a filer has a waiver on a case, we do not charge our Provider Fee either.

Court Transaction Fees

The Court Transaction Fees is an optional service fee that some courts like Santa Clara and Los Angeles charge for e-filing.

Court Convenience Fees / Payment Service Fees

The Court Convenience Fee and Payment Service fees are necessary for the courts to recoup the costs of filers using credit cards and e-checks the banks charge them as that’s not a cost the court is not willing to lose. Therefore, depending on the court, they will add a Court Convenience Fee or Payment Service Fee to each transaction. Depending on the county, the court charges 2.75% – 3.5% of the total costs for using a credit card, or a 25 cent flat fee if a filer uses an e-check for payment.