(a) Filing By Electronic Means.
(1) All documents must be filed with the Clerk of Court in the manner provided in the Court’s
Administrative Procedures for Filing Electronic Documents, available at
www.lamd.uscourts.gov.
(2) An attorney may, for good cause shown, request by written motion a temporary exemption
from mandatory electronic case filing.
(b) Filing of Extraordinary Pleadings. The attorneys filing any pleading of an extraordinary nature
(e.g., temporary restraining orders, vessel seizures, writs of attachment, and other pleadings
requiring immediate judicial action) shall make themselves available by telephone to the Judge
to whom the matter is assigned and shall provide a current cellular telephone number on the
pleading.
(c) Advance Payment Required. The Clerk of Court shall not be required to file any paper or to
render any service for which a fee is legally collectible unless the fee for the particular service is
paid in advance.
(d) Filing by Unrepresented Prisoners, Subject to Electronic Filing, Regarding Civil Rights
and Habeas Corpus Cases.
(1) Original Documents - Prisoners subject to electronic filing must place all documents in an
envelope and place the envelope in a designated box for documents to be filed in
Louisiana Federal District Courts only. No postage is required. All envelopes placed
in the designated box shall be opened by authorized prison personnel in order to scan
the documents. Once scanned, prison personnel shall return all original documents to the
prisoner, unless otherwise directed by the Court. Any envelope placed in the designated box
containing postage shall not be opened for purposes of scanning. Prison officials shall
either return the envelope to the prisoner or mail it to the Court. Documents submitted by
a prisoner to the Court for filing which have not been scanned and emailed by authorized
prison personnel, may, at the direction of the Court, be returned to the prisoner.
(2) Scanning - Authorized prison personnel will scan prisoner documents into a pre-
programmed Document Capture Workstation which converts the document to PDF.
Authorized prison personnel will affix the “scanned” stamp on the document, prior to
scanning, which indicates the date the document was scanned, total number of pages
scanned, and the initials of the person who scanned it. Once the document has been
scanned, authorized prison personnel will verify the legibility of the image on the computer
screen and email the document directly to the Court’s dedicated email address.
(3) Filing into Court’s Electronic Case Management System - The Court will receive and review
all documents received via email from the prison and electronically file submissions
into the case management system. After review, if it is determined by the Court that a
document does not constitute a proper filing in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure and the Local Rules of the Court, the document may be returned to the
prisoner via the U. S. Postal Service, upon direction of the Court.
(e) Certificate of Service.
(1) When a document filed after the initial complaint is served by filing it with the Court’s
electronic filing system, no certificate of service is required when all parties are electronic
filers.
(2) When a document that is required to be served is served by means other than the Court’s
electronic filing system, the document must include a certificate of service indicating the
document has been served on all parties contemporaneously with its filing with the court.
The certificate of service must list each party on which the document has been served
and must identify the method of service upon each party.
(f) Service by Electronic Means.
(1) As provided by Fed. R. Civ. P. 5(b)(2)(E), if a recipient is a registered filer in the Court’s
Electronic CM/ECF Filing System, service is complete when the document is
electronically filed or uploaded to the Court’s system. If the recipient is not a registered
filer in the Court’s system, the filer must effect service on all parties in accordance with
the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
(2) Most sealed filings do not produce a Notice of Electronic Filing, and therefore service
by the filer of any sealed document must be in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure and the Local Rules.
