A completed civil cover sheet must accompany every document initiating a civil
action. Parties must use blank cover sheets that are available from the clerk. Because
the cover sheet is solely for administrative purposes, matters appearing only on the cover
sheet have no legal effect.
If a party files a case-initiating document without a completed civil cover sheet, the
clerk must indicate on the document when it was received and must promptly notify the
party of the missing cover sheet. When the party completes the civil cover sheet and
provides it to the clerk, the clerk must file the case-initiating document as of the date it
was received.
[Adopted effective February 1, 1991; amended July 23, 2012]
2012 Advisory Committee’s Note to LR 3.1
The language of LR 3.1 has been amended in accordance with the restyling process described in
the 2012 Advisory Committee’s Preface.
1991 Advisory Committee’s Note to LR 3.1
On the use of the civil cover sheet for notification of a claim of unconstitutionality, see LR 24.1.
The Committee considered the question whether the rule that “matters appearing only on the civil
cover sheet have no legal effect” might be too harsh in a situation in which a pro se litigant claims jury trial
only on the civil cover sheet. It decided that the discretion of the trial Judge to grant a jury trial under Fed.
R. Civ. P. 39 was sufficient to protect against unfairness.
