WHO CAN USE ELECTRONIC FILING
Most Unified Court System employees who are required to file annual statements of financial disclosure can use electronic filing. Of course you must have a computer, browser and access to Courtnet or the Internet. In March, every employee required to file is sent two letters necessary for electronic filing, one with his or her Account Name and Password, and the other with his or her Signature Key.

You can not use electronic filing if you are requesting an exemption from reporting information pertaining to your wife or children, if you can file only a partial financial disclosure statement because you have an automatic extension of time to file your individual income tax return, or if you are submitting third party financial statements with your financial disclosure statement. Judicial candidates who are not Unified Court System employees may not file electronically.

IS YOUR COMPUTER COMPATIBLE WITH ELECTRONIC FILING?
For Intranet use: you must use a computer connected to the OCA CourtNet.

For Internet use: your computer must be connected to the Internet and have the Internet Explorer browser.

SECURITY
Maintaining the confidentiality and security of the information contained in the financial disclosure statements was the highest priority in the development of the electronic filing system. All data is encrypted during transmission. The data is stored in a secure server located at the Unified Court System’s IT facility at Rensselaer Technology Park. The password that you use to gain access to your statement is known only to you. Only the Commission staff will have regular access to the information contained in your statement. Public inspection requests will be processed using paper copies of your statement.

HELP
If you have any questions regarding electronic filing after you have read through this Guide and all the “Electronic Filing Frequently Asked Questions”, contact us by telephone at 212 428-2899, by mail at:

Ethics Commission
25 Beaver Street Room 875
New York, NY, 10004;

or by email at: EthicsComm@courts.state.ny.us;

Please note however that the Ethics Commission staff are not computer technicians and cannot help you with problems with your software or your CourtNet or Internet connection.

YOUR ACCOUNT NAME, PASSWORD AND SIGNATURE KEY
You must have your Account Name, Password and Signature Key before you sit down at your computer. You cannot file electronically without them. Your Account Name is your UCS Retirement Number. Your Account Name and Password can be found in one of the two letters we sent out to all filers in March; your Signature Key is in the other letter.

If you haven’t received these letters, or if you have lost one or both of them, you must notify the Ethics Commission by telephone, email or regular mail. New letters will be sent to you containing your Account Number, a new initial Password, or your Signature Key. For security reasons, we will not give out Account Names, Passwords or Signature Keys over the telephone or via email.

FIRST TIME LOG-IN: ENTER ACCOUNT NAME AND PASSWORD / ACCESSING YOUR FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

IF YOU ARE FILING USING THE INTERNET, YOU MUST USE THE EXPLORER BROWSER. YOU CAN NOT EFILE USING ANY OTHER BROWSER.

Please note that this is a somewhat lengthy process. The several steps are necessary to protect the integrity and security of the electronic filing system.

On the Ethics Commission website home page, click on the “Electronic Filing” heading in the left column. You will be taken to the electronic filing system. When you are ready to start working on your financial disclosure statement, click on the “File Online (Financial Disclosure Form)” heading on the left. The “On-Line Filing Log In Page” will appear.

When you “Click Here to begin step 1”, you will be prompted to type in your Account Number and the Password that we mailed to you. Your Account Number is your Retirement Number. Please note that if a character in the Password looks like both a number and a letter, always choose the number. For example, if a character looks to you like a zero, and like the letter O, it is a zero. The Passwords are case-sensitive, that is, "A" is not recognized as the same letter as "a". Once you have entered the numbers, click on the “Login” button. If you have typed in either of the numbers incorrectly, nothing will happen. Look at your Account Number to make sure that you typed it correctly, and retype your Password.

If you typed in the correct Account Number and Password, you will be prompted to change your Password. Select a new Password that contains a minimum of eight characters. This Password will be known only to you. Your Password can use numbers and/or letters and letters are case-sensitive. For the purpose of verification, you will have to re-enter your new Password. Now click on the “Submit” button. If you have made any errors, you will be so notified. If you have successfully changed your Password, you must continue with the Login process. Click on the “Continue” button. You will return to the “On-Line Filing Log In Page”.

When you “Click Here to begin step 2”, you will be prompted to once again enter your Account Name and the initial Password that we sent to you. DO NOT USE YOUR NEW PASSWORD, KNOWN ONLY TO YOU, AT THIS POINT. Once you have entered the numbers, click on the “Login” button. If you have typed in either of the numbers incorrectly, nothing will happen. Look at your Account Number to make sure that you typed it correctly, and retype your Password.

If you typed in the correct Account Number and Password, you will see a screen containing your Account Number, your initial Password, and the new Password that you chose. YOU CANNOT MAKE ANY CHANGES ON THIS SCREEN. We advise you to print this page, using your browser’s “Print” function, and keep it in a secure place. Remember that your new Password is known only to you; if you forget it you must notify the Ethics Commission by telephone, email or regular mail. A letter will be sent to you containing a new initial Password and you must repeat the entire initial Login process. For security reasons, we will not give out Passwords over the telephone or via email.

Click on the "Submit" button and you will return to the "On-Line Filing Log In Page". If you do not want to work on your financial disclosure statement, close your browser. If you want to begin working on your financial disclosure statement, click on Go to Financial Disclosure Statement”and you will be prompted to type in your Account Number and the new Password that you have chosen.

SUBSEQUENT LOG-IN: ENTER ACCOUNT NAME AND PASSWORD / ACCESSING YOUR FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

IF YOU ARE FILING USING THE INTERNET, YOU MUST USE THE EXPLORER BROWSER. YOU CAN NOT EFILE USING ANY OTHER BROWSER.

On the Ethics Commission website home page, click on the “Electronic Filing” option in the left column. You will be taken to the electronic filing system. When you are ready to continue working on your financial disclosure statement, click on the “File Online (Financial Disclosure Form)” option on the left. The “On-Line Filing Log In Page” will appear. Now click on “Go To Financial Disclosure Statement”. After your initial Login, you will always choose this option

You will be prompted to enter your Account Name and Password. You must use the Password that you chose. The Password that we mailed to you is no longer operative. The Password that you used to work on last year’s statement is no longer operative. Please remember, we have no knowledge of the new Password you chose. If you have forgotten this Password, we will send you a new initial Password and you will have to repeat the entire initial Login process. If you have forgotten your new Password, or if you have lost the letter with your Account Name, you must notify the Ethics Commission by telephone, email or regular mail. A letter will be sent to you containing your Account Number and/or a new initial Password. For security reasons, we will not give out Account Names or Passwords over the telephone or via email.

Now click on the “Login” button and the first page of your financial disclosure statement will appear on the screen.

NAVIGATING WITHIN YOUR FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
The buttons used to navigate within your financial disclosure statement are in a box in the top right corner of each page. Do not use your browser's "back" or "forward" button with this program.

The boxes on pages two through eleven of the statement contain the following buttons: “Go To Question”, "Previous Page", “Next Page” and “Save & Exit”. The box on the first page of the statement does not contain the "Previous Page" button. The box on the last page of the statement does not contain the "Next Page" button.

If you want to go to any question in the financial disclosure statement, enter the number of the question in the appropriate box and then click on “Go To Question”. Please note, if you want to go to a question that has a part (a), (b) or ©, you must type in both the number and the letter of the question. This applies to questions: 2(a)(b)©; 3(a)(b); 4(a)(b); 5(a)(b); 8(a)(b); 12(a)(b).

If you want to go to the next page in the statement, click on “Next Page”. If you want to go back to the previous page, click on "Previous Page".

If you want to stop working on your statement, click on “Save & Exit”. This will save your work and log you out of the program. When you return to your statement in the future, all the information you entered will appear. DO NOT EXIT YOUR STATEMENT BY CLOSING YOUR BROWSER. If you exit your statement by closing your browser, you will have to wait several hours until the system automatically logs out your statement. If you return to your statement prior to that automatic logoff, you will get an error message indicating that your statement is unavailable because it is in use.

In addition, a “More” button appears on page 10 (Question 13), page 12 (Question 16), and page13 (Question17). Clicking on this button takes you to overflow pages for these questions. See the instructions for additional pages in the “Filling In Your Data-Specific Questions” section.

FILLING IN YOUR DATA: GENERAL INFORMATION

Accessing Question-By-Question Instructions
Every question shows a box containing the letter “Q” and the number of the question. Clicking on this box will take you to the substantive instructions for that question. When you want to return to your statement from the instructions page, scroll down and click on the “Return” button on the bottom of the page.

All questions must be answered in full.
You must make an entry in each field in each question except that:

a) if there is a “None” box, and you put an “X” in that box, you do not have to make any other entries in the response area of that question;

b) you do not have to make an entry in the “Percentage of Corporate Stock Owned or Controlled” field in question 16 on page twleve if you do not own or control the required percentage.

You can delete your complete response to any question, beginning with question 4a.
To the right of each question, beginning with question 4a, there is a button labeled, "Clear All". If you determine that you have entered an erroneous response, click on this button and the entire response will be deleted. You can not delete part of your response with this button.

Only one item should be entered in each field.
Each item being reported must be confined to a single field. For example, in question 17, if you are reporting one real estate item, do not use the second and third fields for the street address and then the city address. The complete address with street and city should be typed in one field.

In the example above, If you use three lines to enter the address, you will be required to compete entries in all fields on those lines, as if you had reported three separate pieces of real estate.

Drop Down Menus
Certain fields in certain questions have drop down menus. In this circumstance, you can only enter one of the choices in the drop down menu, you can not type in your own response. You will know when you are in such a field because you will see an arrow.

The drop down menus appear in the following questions:

• Question 3a: “Married” or “Separated” or “Single” or "Domestic Partner";
• Questions 13, and 16 in the first field: “Self” or “Spouse” or “Joint”;
• Question 17, in the first field: “Self” or “Spouse” or “Joint” or “Corporate”;
• Any question, in the “Category of Value or Amount” field.

Deleting Information
If you want to delete any information you have entered by using the drop down menu, you must go back to the drop down menu and click on the blank or blue area.

If you want to delete any information you have entered manually, highlight the information and press the “Delete” button on your keyboard, or use the “Backspace” button on your keyboard.

FILLING IN YOUR DATA: SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
Question 2A
The system automatically generates your job title. This is your title as of December 31st of the reporting year. You can not change your job title.

Question 3A
If you report your marital status as “Separated”, you must report the name of your spouse. Then click on the button for “Statement of Marital Status” and complete that statement. When you are finished, click on the “Return to Page 1” button on the bottom of the page. The Statement of Marital Status will be electronically filed with your financial disclosure statement.

Question 3B
Unlike the paper financial disclosure statement, you must respond to this question by checking “None” if you do not have any unemancipated children.

Additional Pages For Questions 13, 16 and 17
If you need more lines to complete question 13 on page 10, question 16 on page 12,or question 17 on page 13, click on the “More” button on the bottom of the page. Once you have entered the additional information, click on the “Return to Page...” button to return to the financial disclosure statement. If there is more than one overflow page, the following buttons can be found on the bottom of the appropriate page: "Next Overflow Page"; and "Previous Overflow Page".

Question 16

Percentage of Corporate Stock Owned or Controlled

Do not type in the percentage sign or symbol. If you do, when you move from the question, you will get an error message and all the information you entered into question 16 at the same time you entered the percentage sign or symbol will be deleted.

You have to enter the percent of corporate stock owned or controlled only if more than five percent of publicly traded stock, or more than ten percent of stock not publicly traded, is held.

If you have numerous securities held in one financial institution

The format for this question is different from the format for every other question in the financial disclosure statement. As set forth in the question-by-question instructions, there are circumstances when you must itemize all the securities held by one financial institution. For example, if you hold securities in a brokerage account, you must name all the securities in that account. In addition, you must itemize the names of mutual funds held by certain financial institutions. The format of this question is designed to allow you to so itemize.

The name of the financial institution should be entered in the “Issuing Entity” box. The securities held by that financial institution should be entered in the “Type of Security” box. That box has room for viewing only eight lines of text. If you enter more than eight lines, you must use the arrow keys to scroll up and down to view all the information that you have entered.

If you have entered more than eight lines of information in the "Type of Security" box, when you move from page ten the computer will automatically move the excess text to the "Type of Security" box in the row immediately below. The word "Continued" will be inserted in all the other boxes in the row, except for the "Category of Market Value" box in which a "0" will be inserted. To view these automatic entries, return to page 10 and place the cursor in the first "Type of Security" box entry.

If you have numerous “Issuing Entity” entries
If you need more “Issuing Entity” boxes than appear on the page, click on the “More” button on the bottom of the page. Once you have entered the additional information, click on the “Return to Page...” button to return to your financial disclosure statement.

Question 17
In the “Percentage Of Ownership” field, do not type in the percentage sign or symbol. If you do, when you move from the question, you will get an error message and all the information you entered into question 17 at the same time you entered the percentage sign or symbol will be deleted.

You can not copy any responses from the first page of your prior statement. All other responses, including "None" responses, commencing with question 4a, can be copied.

Log in to your current statement (see the Log-in instructions). It has a button in the bottom left corner of the first page, "View Prior Year Statement". When you click on this button your prior year's statement appears. Note that this is a read only copy of last year's statement; you can not add or delete any information. The word "Archive" appears in the top left corner of every page of the statement.

The button, "Exit Archive" appears on the bottom of each page of the Archive statement. If you click on this button, your current statement will appear. You can move back and forth between the two statements as often as you wish. We suggest that you go through the entire Archive statement, read all your responses and choose which to copy.

The following three navigation buttons also appear on each page of the Archive statement: "Previous Page", "Next Page", and "Go to Question". The function of these buttons is explained in the "Navigating Within Your Financial Disclosure Statement" instructions.

After you have read a response to a question in your Archive statement and you have concluded that the information is accurate for the current reporting year, you can copy the complete response to that question into your current statement by clicking on the "Copy to Current Year" button that appears to the right of every question commencing with question 4a. You can not copy part of a response. Clicking on "Copy to Current Year" copies all the information reported in response to that question, including the information reported on any "More" pages created for questions 13, 16 and 17. If a response is lengthy and most of it is accurate for the current reporting year, you can copy the entire response and edit it in your current statement.

When you return to your current statement, you must affirm that every response copied from the Archive statement is accurate for the current reporting year. If you decide that you have copied a response in error, click on the "Clear All" button that appears to the right of each question, commencing with question 4a. This will delete ALL the information you copied. It is not possible to delete part of a response using this button. However, you can edit a copied response by using your keyboard to delete information and/or type in new information.

When you are ready to affirm that your response is accurate for the current reporting year, put your cursor and click anywhere in the box that appears to the right of each question, commencing with question 4a, containing the language, "Click here to affirm that this response is accurate for the current reporting year". Note that you must click in this box even if you have edited your copied response. After you have done so, the word "Affirm" will appear in the box. If you do not do so, your statement will not be accepted for filing and the message, "Prior Year Data Not Affirmed" will appear in the Validation Report". See the "Filing Your Financial Disclosure Statement" instructions for an explanation of the "Validation Report" and the filing process.

VIEWING PREVIOUSLY FILED, ARCHIVED, STATEMENTS
Every year, in January, all statements filed in the past filing year are archived. You can view all of your archived statements but you can not change any of your responses or amend , edit, or modify these statements.

As explained in the section above, you can copy information into your current statement only from the archive statement for the reporting year immediately preceding the current reporting year.

To access your archived statements, click on the "View Prior Year Statements" button in the bottom left corner of your current statement. The most recently filed statement will appear. To go back and forth between archived statements, click on the "Next" or "Previous" button that appears after "View Year' in the bottom left corner of the first page of all archived statements.

The word "Archive" and the reporting year of the statement appears on the top of each page of an archive statement. Pages two through eleven contain a navigation box with the following buttons: "Go to Question"; "Previous Page"; "Next Page"; and "Exit Archive". The first page does not have the "Previous Page" button and the last page does not have the "Next Page" button.

If you want to go to any question in the statement, enter the number of the questions in the appropriate box and then click on “Go to Question”. Please note, if you want to go to a question that has a part (a), (b) or ©, you must type in both the number and the letter of the question This applies to question 2(a) (b) ©, 4(a)(b), 5(a)(b)(c),8(a)(b), and 12(a)(b).

If you want to go to the next page in the statement, click on “Next Page”. If you want to go to the previous page, click on “Previous Page”. If you want to go back to your current statement, click on “Exit Archive”. This will take you to the first page of your current statement.

The following button appears to the right of questions 4a through 19 in all archived statements: “Copy to Current". THIS BUTTON ONLY WORKS IN THE ARCHIVE STATEMENT FOR THE REPORTING YEAR IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE CURRENT REPORTING YEAR. If you click on this button in any other archive statement, nothing will happen. See the above section of this guide for information about this button. You will be reminded of this prohibition by the following language that appears in the top right corner of pages two through twelve of all archived statements: “You can copy only from your [reporting year immediately preceding current reporting year] statement”.

FILING A DELETION REQUEST

Filing A Deletion Request With Your statement
Once you have completed your financial disclosure statement, but before you file it, you may complete an application to request that certain information reported on the financial disclosure statement be deleted from public inspection. The application will be filed electronically with your financial disclosure statement. If you have any questions about deletion requests, please refer to the Filing Instructions first, and then call the Ethics Commission office if you need further assistance.

To access the deletion application go to the last page of the statement and click on the button: ”To file a deletion request, click here”. If you realize that you have gone to this page in error, and that you do not want to file a deletion request, click on the button for “Cancel Deletion Request” at the top of the page; you will be returned to the last page of your financial disclosure statement. If you do complete the application, you can return to your statement by clicking on the “Return to FDS” button on the bottom of the page. If you need to enter more information after completing the first page of the application, click on the “Additional Page” button on the bottom of the first page of the application. When you have finished the additional page, click on the “Return to First Page of Deletion Request” button or the “Return to Page 12 of the FDS" button.

Filing A Deletion Request After You Have Filed Your Statement
If you want to file a deletion request after you have filed your financial disclosure statement, you must obtain a paper deletion request form from our website or from our office, and then mail in the completed request. When we receive the request, your statement will be removed from the electronic filing system and converted to a paper filing.

FILING YOUR FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
When you are ready to file your financial disclosure statement, you must have your Signature Key at hand. You cannot file electronically without it. We mailed you a letter containing your Signature Key in March. If you did not receive the letter, or if you have lost it, you must notify the Ethics Commission by telephone, email or regular mail. A duplicate letter will be sent to you. For security reasons, we will not give out a Signature Key over the telephone or via email.

On the last page of the statement, enter your Signature Key in the box labeled "Sign By Entering Signature Key". You do not have to enter the date that you filed. That date will be automatically generated by the program. Then click on the “Verify and File” button.

A “Validation Report” will appear on the screen:

1. If you have answered every question, the Report will contain the message that you have successfully filed your statement. This Report is confirmation that you have filed your financial disclosure statement. You should print this page for your records. Use your browser's "Print" function on the browser "File" menu to print. Do not use the print icon. You should print in "Landscape" mode, using 8.5 x 11 inch paper. In the “Print Range” choose the “Page” option and type in the number “1".

Now you can either leave the program by clicking on the “Log Out” button at the top of the Report, or you can "Click here to get an emailed FDS in PDF format". See the section below for further printing instructions. If you log out you will be taken to a “Thank You” page. You exit this page by closing your browser.

OR

2. If you have not successfully completed your statement, the Report will advise you as to which questions must be answered or revised.

First print out a copy of the Report:
Use your browser's "Print" function on the browser "File" menu to print the selected page. Do not use the print icon. You should print in "Landscape" mode, using 8.5 x 11 inch paper. In the “Print Range” choose the “Page” option and type in the number “1".

Then go back to your statement by clicking on the “return to the first page of your statement” button.

Make the necessary corrections. See the “Navigation” section herein to review how to go from one question to another.

You must then re-enter your Signature Key and click on the “Sign and File” button on the bottom of the last page of your statement.

You will now get a Report indicating that you have successfully filed your statement.

After you have filed your financial disclosure statement, you can log in to the system and view or print your statement until December 31. A message will appear in the top right corner of the first page of your statement, advising you that your statement has been filed. You can no longer make any changes to your financial disclosure statement electronically.

If you want to add something to your statement after it has been filed, you must mail a signed letter to the Commission Office, indicating by year which statement(s) you wish to amend, which question(s) you wish to amend, and the information you wish to add. When we receive the letter, your statement will be removed from the electronic filing system and converted to a paper filing. We will attach a copy of your letter to your statement, and the letter will become a part of the statement. If you want to remove something from your statement, you must file a deletion request by mail. See our instructions for filing deletion requests.

PRINTING YOUR FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

You can print out a copy of your entire financial disclosure statement at any time by emailing a "PDF" copy of the statement to yourself. To do so, click on the following language: "To get an emailed statement in PDF format, click here". This language can be found: on the bottom of the last page of the statement, before it is filed; on the right side of the Validation Report ; and on the top left corner of first page of the statement, after it has been filed.

When you click on the button, you will be prompted to enter the email address where you want the statement to be sent. You must also create, and enter, a password. The password can be any combination of characters. You should get the email within a half hour or less, depending on your Internet Service Provider.

The email containing your statement comes from ethicscomm@courts.state.ny.us. You should be able to access your statement by double clicking on the "PDF" attachment.

If double clicking on the attachment does not prompt you to enter your password, go back to the email, put your cursor on the "PDF" and right click your mouse. Choose "Open With"; choose "Adobe Reader..."; and click on "OK". You will be prompted to enter your password. When you enter your password, your statement will appear.

You can not make any modifications in your statement at this time. You should print the statement using the Adobe print icon.

For security reasons, we suggest that you delete your financial disclosure statement from your email account, after printing.

You can print any one page of your statement, before it is filed. Before you print, click anywhere on a page (for example, on your name in your form) to make sure your form is active and ready for printing. Use your browser's "Print" function on the browser "File" menu to print the selected page. Do not use the print icon. You should print in Landscape mode, using 8.5 X 11-inch paper. In the “Print Range” choose the “Page” option and type in the number “1" no matter what page you are printing. Click on the “Print” button.