For example, the United States federal courts operate on a mandatory filing system (with minor exceptions for the most routine discovery exchanges).
[3] In contrast, from the reign of Edward IV during the late 1400s to the late 1990s (that is, before the 1998 promulgation of the Civil Procedure Rules), the trial courts of England and Wales normally did not maintain comprehensive pretrial case files (beyond recording the issuance of a writ to initiate a legal proceeding).
In courts that require triplicate submissions, the third copy is then taken (either by the clerk or by the filer) to the chambers or courtroom of the judge assigned to the case.
The clerk then adds the document to the docket for the case as well as any related deadlines or events.
A newer phenomenon is electronic filing, in which lawyers simply upload Portable Document Format electronic documents to a secure website maintained either by the court (for example, the U.S. has CM/ECF) or by a private commercial service like LexisNexis.
Even when one seeks a waiver for grossly unfair fees, courts tend to waive only the amount in excess of the plaintiff's total assets, with the result that just to initiate a meritorious case, an already severely injured or damaged plaintiff may have to go bankrupt.