Circuit court eFiling - Creating and managing a court debit account

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Purpose: A court debit account offers eFilers the ability to deposit money with the clerk of circuit court to pay for fees associated with eFiled cases. You may delegate access to this account to any attorney who has an eCourts account. There are no electronic banking fees when using a court debit account, and eFilers skip the US Bank electronic payment process. You must set up court debit accounts with each county clerk of circuit court where you want to use these accounts instead of electronic payment through US Bank.

Applicable Users: eFiling users

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Creating a court debit account 

1. Visit the eFiling website at https://efiling.wicourts.gov/ and log in. For more information, see the article Logging into Wisconsin circuit court eFiling.
2. Hover your mouse over your name in the top-right corner of the screen. Select court debit accounts from the dropdown menu that appears.
   
3. Select [Create] to create a new court debit account.
   
4. Select the county in which you are creating the account from the dropdown list. You can begin typing the county name or use the down arrow in the County field.
5. Enter a unique Account name (i.e., your firm name or firm name and division: Johnson Law Civil Division). Select [Save] to continue.
   
6. A confirmation screen displays your new account with your account name, the county where the account is being established, a system-generated account number, and your current account balance. At this point, you need to make a deposit to the clerk of circuit courts office in the county you selected. Payment must be made by paper check or cash, either by mail or in person. The Account name and Account number are required at the time of payment.
   

Granting access to your Court debit account

As the creator of a court debit account, you can grant other attorneys access to this account for electronic payments. Attorneys must have an eCourts account to be authorized to use court debit accounts.

Delegated staff members, such as paralegals and local government staff, can use your court debit account to submit filings on your behalf to counties. Their access to the court debit account is provided by granting them full account access on the Delegations page.

1. Select Manage account to authorize additional attorneys to use your court debit account.
   
2. Select [Add account user].
   
3. Enter the email address associated with the attorney’s eCourts account, then select [Find].
   
4. If the email address matches an eCourts user account, a new window displays with the email address, attorney name, and access rights radio buttons.
5. Leave the radio button set to No if the person you are granting authority to should only be able to use this account to make payments for filings. Change the radio button to Yes to grant this user authority to make payments from the account and to manage the account (i.e., add and remove other users).
6. To complete this process, select [Authorize].
   
7. The authorization process is complete, and the attorney you authorized can now use the associated court debit account and access available funds to make payment. The attorney’s name displays on your Manage debit account screen. You may remove access to the court debit account anytime by selecting Delete under the Actions menu.
   

Viewing court debit account transaction details

1. Once you have created a court debit account, deposited funds with the clerk of court, and used the account to pay for filings, you can view account activity by selecting the Balance link on the Court debit accounts page.
   
2. The Court debit account history shows all transactions affecting the account.
   

Deleting or renaming your court debit account

1. If you need to change the name of a court debit account, select Rename from the Actions column. You can rename a court debit account anytime after the account has been created.
2. If you would like to delete an unused court debit account, select Delete from the Actions column. 
   Note: You cannot delete a court debit account if it is connected with any prior financial transactions.

Marking your court debit account as inactive

1. If a court debit account is no longer in use, it can be marked as inactive, which will remove it from the list of court debit accounts. Select Mark as inactive from the Actions column to mark a court debit account as inactive.
   
2. To view all court debit accounts that have been marked as inactive, check the Show inactive checkbox. The court debit account can be re-activated by selecting the Mark as active option in the Actions column.