IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN DISTRICTS OF ILLINOIS
)
IN RE: PROCEDURAL RULES FOR )
) GENERAL ORDER: No. 15-05
ELECTRONIC FILING PROGRAM )
)
This General Order modifies and supersedes General Order No. 2014-1, which was entered
on January 16, 2014.
The United States District Courts for the Central and Southern Districts of Illinois and the
Illinois Department of Corrections have agreed to participate in an electronic filing program at
certain correctional facilities in the State of Illinois. The electronic filing program is designed to
reduce the cost of processing court filings made by prisoners in civil rights and habeas corpus
cases brought under 42 U.S.C. §1983, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2241, 2254, or 2255, and any other type of
case filed in these federal courts. This program will significantly reduce the expenditures for
paper, envelopes, copier supplies, and postage for the correctional facilities and the prisoners.
Furthermore, it will substantially reduce the amount of staff time spent processing prisoner filings
for both the correctional facilities and the district courts.
The details of this program are as follows:
1. Library staff at the participating correctional facilities will scan prisoner
filings into a pre-programmed digital sender which converts the filing to
.pdf format and e-mails the document directly to the appropriate court. Each
divisional office in the Central District of Illinois and the Southern District
of Illinois will have a dedicated e-mail address for such filings.
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2. Once the document has been scanned and sent to the Court, library staff will
return the original document to the prisoner. The prisoner shall keep the
original document and produce it at a later time, if ordered to do so by the
Court. When dealing with a lengthy document or a document of unusual
size or format, library staff may elect to make a copy of the document and
send the copy to the appropriate court after returning the original to the
prisoner.
3. After receiving the prisoner’s document via e-mail from the correctional
facility, the document will be filed by court staff into the Case Management
Electronic Case Filing (CM/ECF). For any document filed by court staff on
behalf of the prisoner (other than a complaint, which requires service of
process), the Notice of Electronic Filing (NEF) generated by the CM/ECF
system will constitute official service upon and notice to the other parties in
the case, if counsel for the other parties are registered for electronic case
filing. If a party to the case is not registered, the Clerk of Court will mail a
copy of the prisoner’s electronically filed document to each non-registered
party on behalf of the prisoner, via the United States Postal Service.
4. Each participating correctional facility will establish an e-mail address by
which library staff will receive the Notice of Electronic Filing (NEF) which
issues when a document has been filed electronically. An NEF contains a
hyperlink for a free download of the e-filed document. Library staff will
print every NEF and provide a copy to the prisoner via the institutional mail.
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In addition, library staff will print the entire document when an NEF is
received for any document filed by the Court on its own (orders, notices,
minutes, etc.) and will print a copy of the first page of any document that a
prisoner has filed (which will demonstrate that the document has been
electronically filed and confirm the number of pages filed with the Court).
These materials also will be provided to the prisoner via the institutional
mail.
5. Defendants and any other non-prisoner party shall mail to the prisoner, via
the United States Postal Service, a copy of any document filed on their
behalf. Although library staff will print the NEF for documents filed by
Defendants and any other non-prisoner party as set forth above, it is not the
responsibility of library staff to print a document filed electronically by
another party to the case. Any such document will be received by the
prisoner via the United States Postal Service.
6. When the prisoner receives a copy of the NEF for a document that was
electronically filed on his behalf, he shall verify that the correct number of
pages were filed. If there is a problem with the scanned document, the
prisoner shall re-submit the original to library staff, who will contact the
appropriate court to report the discrepancy. If it is later determined by the
Court that a portion of a pleading is missing or illegible, the Court will enter
an Order directing the prisoner to mail the original document to the Court or
to re-submit the document to library staff for electronic submission.
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7. After a merit review hearing or preliminary review of the case has been
conducted by the Court, the Clerk of Court will produce the necessary
copies of the complaint to accomplish service of process upon the
defendants as directed by the Court.
8. Library staff shall verify that any document printed for the prisoner is
legible and immediately notify the appropriate court of any printing issues
or other technical difficulties.
9. One of the district courts will provide and deliver a digital sender to each
correctional facility participating in the Electronic Filing Program. The
equipment will at all times remain property of the United States District
Court which supplied the digital sender (and bear a property tag reflecting
the ownership), and the Department of Corrections will execute an
appropriate property receipt provided by the district court. The Department
of Corrections will provide a printer and paper necessary to fulfill the
requirements of this General Order at each participating correctional
facility.
The effective date of this General Order is November 5, 2015.
S/James E. Shadid
__________________________________________
JAMES E. SHADID
Chief Judge, United States District Court
Central District of Illinois
S/Michael J. Reagan
__________________________________________
MICHAEL J. REAGAN
Chief Judge, United States District Court
Southern District of Illinois
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