Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority eFile Terms of Use
|
|
Under Georgia law, the Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority (GSCCCA) is the sole owner of its compiled and developed information. None of the materials contained on this site or any part thereof, including any information, products and/or software related to the materials, may be compiled, bundled, grouped, reproduced, shared, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form by any means without the express written permission of GSCCCA except documentation kept by licensed users for backup purposes. Users of this site are granted a limited license to access the materials made available on this site. No user or any other party is permitted to sell, share, transfer, loan, license or market the materials or to engage in any similar transaction related to the materials contained on this site to any extent under any circumstances. GSCCCA provides all materials and other information and/or software distributed on this site "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties or conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall GSCCCA be liable for any loss of profits, lost business, loss of use of data, interruption of business, or for indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any kind. GSCCCA may revise the terms of use of its site from time to time without notices other than posting on its site.
The performance of this website and all information contained on, downloaded
or accessed from this website are provided to you on an "as is"
basis, without warranties of any kind whatsoever, including any implied
warranties or warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose
or non- infringement of the rights of third parties. GSCCCA shall be not
responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network
or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, internet access providers,
computer equipment, software, or any combination thereof including any injury
or damage to your or any other person's computer as a result of using this
website.
As a visitor or user, you acknowledge and agree that any reliance on or use by you of any services, tools, products or information available on this website shall be entirely at your own risk. In no event shall GSCCCA nor any of its data providers be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential or exemplary damages arising from the use or the performance of this website, even if GSCCCA or such provider has been advised of the possibility of such damages. It is the responsibility of the user to determine a submission has been filed with the clerk of superior court.
NO UNLAWFUL OR PROHIBITED USE
As a condition of your use of the website and any services, tools, products or
information you will not use the website for any purpose that is unlawful or
prohibited by these terms, conditions, and notices. You may not use the
website in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair any
GSCCCA server, or the network(s) connected to any GSCCCA server, or interfere
with any other party's use and enjoyment of the website. You may not
attempt to gain unauthorized access to any website services, other accounts,
computer systems or networks connected to any GSCCCA server or to any of the
services, through hacking, password mining or any other means. You may not
obtain or attempt to obtain any materials or information through any means not
intentionally made available through the services.
Illegal and/or unauthorized uses of the site, including, but not limited to, unauthorized framing of or linking to the site, or unauthorized use of any robot, spider or other automated device on the site, will be investigated and appropriate legal action will be taken, including without limitation civil, criminal and injunctive redress.
A user submitting any document for recording electronically using this site represents, affirms and declares that the document is authentic, genuine, and unaltered from its executed and attested state. Users are strictly prohibited from engaging in any actions that involve fraud, deceit, or dishonesty. This includes, but is not limited to, providing any false information, misrepresenting any fact, presenting for recordation any document that has been forged or altered from its original executed state, presenting any tax form containing any false information, or intentionally concealing the truth in any form.
If you violate these Terms of Use, GSCCCA may terminate your use of the site, bar you from future use of the site, and/or take appropriate legal action against you including appropriate referral for criminal prosecution.
Compliance With Law and Rules
Users submitting electronic real estate documents shall strictly comply with all provisions of Georgia law relating to electronic recording of real estate instruments and the Real Estate Electronic Recording Rules for the State of Georgia (effective to December 31, 2024) and the Real Estate Electronic Recording Rules for the State of Georgia (effective January 1, 2025) adopted pursuant to the Georgia Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act, Code Section 44-2-35 et seq. Any user requests for identity verification for authorized submitter status prior to January 1, 2025, shall comply with the Rules effective as of January 1, 2025, for the purpose of identity verification.
Account Policies
To participate in electronic filing as a submitter, each user must establish a distinct eFiling account. User accounts can be established at no charge via the online registration. Effective January 1, 2025, an efile account may only be held by a human. A user shall not apply for, attempt to have, or use, multiple active account instances. GSCCCA may deactivate any duplicate user accounts detected. GSCCCA may suspend, inactivate, or revoke the authorized status of any account holder submitter for cause and may require the account holder to perform such additional steps to maintain or reinstate their account.
Effective January 1, 2025, Georgia law requires identity verification of every person submitting a real estate document for recording electronically. The Real Estate Electronic Recording Rules for the State of Georgia (effective January 1, 2025) defines the information a user must submit to be authorized to electronically transmit real estate documents. By making application for authorized real estate submitter status, the user/account holder agrees to the use of such information by GSCCCA and its identity providers to determine the applicant’s identity according to law and to the retention of such information as provided in the Privacy Policy herein.
Products
Any product, tool or service mentioned on this site is mentioned for
identification purposes only. Product names appearing in this material may or
may not be registered trademarks or copyrights of their respective companies.
Regarding Software Available on This Site
Software made available for download from this server ("GSCCCA
Software") is the copyrighted work of the Georgia Superior Court
Clerks' Authority and/or its vendors. GSCCCA Software is made available
for downloading solely for use by registered users according to the License
Agreement. Any reproduction or redistribution of software retrieved from this
site is expressly prohibited by law and may result in civil and criminal
penalties.
Links to Sites Outside the Dominion and Control of GSCCCA Certain weblinks
found on the site may resolve to third party websites. GSCCCA does not have
control of these other sites and GSCCCA is not responsible for the contents of
any site outside of the GSCCCA domain. GSCCCA provides these links only as a
convenience. The inclusion of any such link is merely for the convenience to
the user and is not an endorsement by GSCCCA of any linked site.
Privacy Policy
GSCCCA’s general privacy policy can be found at https://www.gsccca.org/privacy-policy.
Information collected by the eFiling systems will be used to establish user accounts and to positively identify account users submitting real estate documents electronically. This may include but is not limited to sending filing status and notifications through email, mobile devices, or text messaging and verifying account information. Information collected will be subject to disclosure as required by law. In no event will information be sold to third parties without the consent of the affected parties.
Any user who seeks authorized status as a real estate electronic submitter acknowledges that Georgia law requires GSCCCA to maintain information or data, including information containing personally identifiable information, images and biometric information. Such information may be held by GSCCCA indefinitely and may be released to peace officers in the course of investigating potential crimes; in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or court order; to an individual who holds a recorded interest in real property that was the subject of an electronic document that was submitted for recording by the individual who provided such information; or to an individual who is named as a party in an electronic document. Such user also acknowledges and agrees that such information will be provided to GSCCCA’s primary identity verification provider, Persona Identities Inc., or such secondary identity verification provider(s) as determined by GSCCCA.
Specifically, as relates to GSCCCA’s identity primary verification provider, Persona Identities Inc., you consent to Persona collecting, using, and utilizing its service providers to process your biometric information to verify your identity, identify fraud, and improve Persona’s platform in accordance with its Privacy Policy. Your biometric information will be stored by Persona for no more than 3 years.
Credit Card Transaction Fee
Generally, the GSCCCA does not impose or collect any fees in addition to the
normal filing fees that would be collected in the county of filing. It is the
goal of the GSCCCA to offer eFiling to the public as a low-cost alternative to
hardcopy filing. However, the GSCCCA will impose a small transaction fee to
all credit card purchases in order to recover the cost of processing such
transactions. The fee is currently calculated to be 3.5%, but may change from
time to time without prior notice, as is necessary to recover the cost of
these transactions. The eFiling system will always clearly indicate the credit
card processing fee amount whenever it is assessed as part of a transaction,
prior to being collected.
Bank Account (ACH/eCheck) Transactions
GSCCCA allows all users except real estate integrated submitters to pay for
electronic filings using one or more bank accounts. Integrated submitters
utilize an API process to integrate with GSCCCA’s eFiling portal for purposes
of eFiling real estate documents. Payments from a bank account are termed ACH,
eCheck, EFT or Electronic Funds Transfer transactions, and GSCCCA charges
$0.50 per real estate package or UCC filing to cover the cost of processing
the transaction. As with paper checks, there are circumstances in which the
transaction may not be honored by the user’s financial institution. Should
such a transaction be returned by the user’s bank as uncollectible for any
reason, GSCCCA may impose a "returned check" or dishonor fee in addition to
the original filing fee, and attempt to collect such fees directly from the
user’s escrow account (see below).
Escrow Accounts
All users of the GSCCCA eFiling system have a virtual escrow account in the
system which can be funded by the user in order to pay for filings without
subsequently using a credit card or bank account. Escrow accounts can be
funded at any time using a credit card or bank account. Funds deposited via
credit card are generally available instantly, though funds deposited via bank
account may take up to 5 banking days to become available. GSCCCA limits the
number of pending bank account funded transactions, as well as, the amount to
be funded per transaction. The available balance in an escrow account will be
reduced by the total cost of previously authorized/pending transactions. In
the event that a filing which was paid for using an escrow account is
subsequently rejected by the clerk then cancelled by the filer, the amount of
the previously authorized transaction will be returned to the escrow account.
The eFiling system will prevent use of escrow funds should the cost of a
transaction exceed the available balance of the escrow account. When
alternative payment methods are used to pay for filings, such as payment via
bank account by ACH, eCheck, EFT or Electronic Funds Transfer and the funds
are not collectible for any reason, the cost of such failed transactions will
be debited against the user’s escrow account along with any fees imposed by
the GSCCCA for dishonored or returned items. Such actions may cause the escrow
account to reflect a negative balance. A negative escrow account balance will
automatically cause the user account to be temporarily suspended and new
filings will not be permitted until the escrow balance is brought current.
Only credit card and check payments are allowed when funding a negative escrow
account. A user may request the return of unused escrow funds at any time by
contacting the GSCCCA helpdesk.
Filing Fee Estimation
The GSCCCA eFiling system calculates anticipated filing fees based on
statutory fee schedules associated with each instrument filing type. There are
user provided information parameters that affect the GSCCCA anticipated fee
estimate, including but not limited to proper instrument types and any tax
that may be due. In all instances, the actual fees and/or taxes for the filing
are determined by the Clerk of Superior Court. The clerk’s final assessment
may vary from the fee estimate provided by the GSCCCA. To allow for small
variances in anticipated fee calculation, the GSCCCA system will authorize the
total cost of the anticipated estimated filing fees and taxes plus an
additional $10 to allow uninterrupted filing due to underestimated fee
calculation. Should a clerk accept a filing and a variance of $10 or less
exists between the clerk assessment and the GSCCCA fee estimate, the filing
will be accepted. In the event of an anticipated estimated fee variance of
more than $10, the Clerk of Superior Court may reject the submission. Such
rejections are typically the result of incorrect or incomplete information
provided by the user at the time of submission. In all cases, if the
authorized amount is greater than the actual clerk assessment, the amount of
the authorized excess is not collected from the user. To ensure timely filing
of all documents, it is critical that all user-provided information be
accurate.
Copyright Notice
Copyright © Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority, 1875
Century Boulevard, Suite 100, Atlanta, Georgia 30345. For more information,
contact Mike Smith, Director, GSCCCA Communications at (404) 327-9058 or by
email at Mike.Smith@gsccca.org. Any and all rights not expressly granted
herein are reserved in their entirety. Contact webmaster@gsccca.org if you
should have any questions or problems with this site.