iv. All pleadings and documents filed by pro se litigants who are not registered
Filing Users in the Electronic Filing System.
v. Affidavits for search and arrest warrants and related documents.
vi. Fed. R. Crim. P. 20 and Fed. R. Crim. P. 40 documents received from
another court.
vii. Oversize or non-flat items.
viii. Motions to file documents under seal and documents filed under seal.
ix. Ex parte motions and applications.
x. Memoranda, exhibits and attachments to documents which are otherwise
permitted for filing, but exceed 5 megabytes in size.
xi. Rule 4 executed service of process documents.
xii. The state court record filed in 28 U.S.C. Section 1446 removal proceedings.
B. The following documents may be received by the Clerk's Office in criminal cases,
either over the counter or by e-mail, but are not filed electronically or otherwise,
unless ordered by the Court:
i. Pretrial service reports.
ii. Appearance bonds.
iii. Psychiatric and psychological reports.
iv. Pre-sentencing reports and other documents submitted prior to sentencing.
v. Letters from defendants, or on their behalf.
5. Proposed Orders
Proposed orders must be transmitted by e-mail to
[email protected]. See L.R.
7.1(b)(4). Proposed orders should not be e-mailed to any other e-mail address or to a particular court
employee and should not be filed in the Electronic Filing System.
6. Entry of Court-Issued Documents
All orders, decrees, judgments, and proceedings of the Court will be filed in accordance with
these procedures, which will constitute entry on the docket kept by the clerk under Fed. R. Civ. P. 58
and 79. All signed orders will be filed electronically by the Court or court personnel. Any order or
other court-issued document filed electronically without the original signature of a judge or clerk has
the same force and effect as if the judge or clerk had signed a paper copy of the order and it had been
entered on the docket in a conventional manner.
By or at the direction of the judge in a case, orders may also be issued as “text-only” entries
on the docket, without an attached document. Such orders are official and binding.
The Court may sign, seal (by electronic graphical embossing) and issue a summons
electronically. However, summons may not be served electronically. If summons was issued
electronically by the Court, the party must print the electronically-embossed summons and effect
service in the manner in accordance with Fed. R. Civ. P. 4 and Fed. R. Crim. P. 4(c).
7. Attachments and Exhibits
Filing Users must submit in electronic form all documents referenced as exhibits or
attachments, unless the Court permits conventional filing of a specific document. Voluminous items
may be electronically filed as multiple partial file attachments to avoid system limits on individual
file size. The current system limit is 5 megabytes for any individual PDF file.
8. Sealed Documents
Documents ordered to be placed under seal may be filed conventionally or electronically as
authorized by the Court. A motion to file documents under seal may be filed electronically unless
prohibited by law. The order of the Court authorizing the filing of documents under seal may be filed
electronically unless prohibited by law. If filed conventionally, a paper copy of the order must be
attached to the documents under seal and delivered to the clerk.
9. Signatures
The user log-in and password required to submit documents to the Electronic Filing System
serve as the Filing User’s signature on all electronic documents filed with the Court. An e-mail from
the E-mail Filer’s registered e-mail address will serve as the E-mail User’s signature on all electronic
documents filed with the Court. They also serve as a signature for purposes of Fed. R. Civ. P. 11, the
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the local rules of this
Court, and any other purpose for which a signature is required in connection with proceedings before
the Court. E-mailed or electronically filed documents must set forth the name, address and telephone
number of the attorney or other filer. In the signature block of filed documents, the name of the E-
mail Filer or the name of the Filing User under whose log-in and password the document is submitted
must be preceded by an “/s/” and typewritten in the space where the signature would otherwise appear.
In a criminal case, the charging documents, including the complaint, information, indictment
and superseding information or indictment, will have an original signature on paper, or an imaged
signature in an electronic document form, as stated in Part 1 of this procedure.
Documents filed electronically by a Filing User or E-mail Filer which contain the signature(s)
of non-Filing User(s), other than a defendant in a criminal case, are to be filed electronically with the
signature represented by a “/s/” and the name typed in the space where a signature would otherwise
appear, or as a scanned image of the original document having such signatures. The original document
with actual signatures will be retained by the E-mail Filer or Filing User as per section 10 of these
procedures.
A document containing the signature of a defendant in a Criminal case may at the Court’s
option be filed either: (1) in paper form with an original written signature or (2) in a scanned format
that contains an image of the defendant’s signature, with the original document retained by the Filing
User.
Documents requiring signatures of more than one party must be electronically filed either by:
(1) submitting a scanned document containing all necessary signatures; (2) representing the consent
of the other parties on the document; (3) identifying on the document the parties whose signatures are
required and by the submission of a notice of endorsement by the other parties no later than three
business days after filing; or (4) in any other manner approved by the Court.
No Filing User, E-mail Filer or other person may knowingly permit or cause to permit a Filing
User’s CM/ECF password or the E-mail Filer’s e-mail account password to be used by anyone other
than an authorized agent of the E-mail Filer or Filing User.
10. Document Retention
Documents that are electronically filed and require original signatures other than that of the
Filing User or E-mail Filer must be maintained in paper form by the Filing User or E-mail Filer until
the expiration of the time for filing a timely appeal, and until 30 days after all appeals have been
concluded, and in criminal matters until the length of the defendant’s criminal sentence (if any) has
elapsed. On request of the Court, the Filing User or E-mail Filer must provide original documents
for review.
Normal case documents which for good reason are filed with the Court on paper, instead of
electronically filed, will be scanned and converted into electronic documents by the Clerk’s Office
staff, and the electronic document will be entered into the Electronic Filing System as the official
record of the case. Only a few types of filed paper documents, specified in Section 4 of these
procedures, will be retained at the District Court as part of the official case record. Other paper
documents will be returned to the filer. Filers who have not been granted CM/ECF Filing User access
and are filing paper documents over the counter must wait while their documents are filed, and
retrieve any returned paper documents immediately after filing. Unclaimed returned paper documents
are subject to disposal, at the option of the Clerk’s Office staff.
Flashdrives, disks or e-mails submitted to the District Court for filing by the Clerk’s Office
staff will be discarded after the electronic documents are filed into the Electronic Filing System,
unless the filer makes arrangements to retrieve the item from the Clerk’s Office immediately after
filing.
Paper case records, which pre-date the implementation of the Electronic Filing System, will
be retained by the Court as paper records, subject to normal storage and disposal regulations for paper
case records.
11. Service of Documents by Electronic Means
The “Notice of Electronic Filing” that is automatically generated by the Court’s Electronic
Filing System, except as provided below, constitutes service of the filed document on Filing Users.
Parties not indicated to have been electronically served on the Notice of Electronic Filing must be
served by the Filing User with a paper copy of any pleading or other document filed, in accordance
with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the local rules.
E-mail Filers must either e-mail the documents to a court-registered e-mail address or execute
service in the traditional manner. E-mail Filers must file a certificate with the Court for all service.
Most sealed filings do not produce a Notice of Electronic Filing, and therefore, service by the
filer of any sealed document by paper copy is required.
For documents served by paper copy or e-mail, a printed Notice of Electronic Filing may be
attached to the paper document when served, in lieu of the “Filed” ink-stamp which may alternately
be applied to paper documents when filed on paper at the Court.
A certificate of service must be included with all documents filed electronically, indicating
that service was accomplished through the Notice of Electronic Filing for parties and counsel who
are Filing Users and indicating how service was accomplished on any party or counsel who is not a
Filing User.
12. Notice of Court Orders and Judgments
Immediately upon the entry of an order or judgment in an action assigned to the
Electronic Filing System, the clerk will transmit to Filing Users in the case, in electronic form, a
Notice of Electronic Filing. For E-mail Filers, the clerk will transmit a Notice of Electronic Filing
and a pdf copy of the order by e-mail. Transmission of the Notice of Electronic Filing constitutes the
notice required by Fed. R. Civ. P. 77(d) and Fed. R. Crim. P. 49(c). The clerk must give notice in
paper form to a person who has not consented to electronic or e-mail service in accordance with the
Federal Rules of Procedure.
13. Technical Failures
A Filing User or E-mail Filer whose filing is made untimely as the result of a technical failure (e.g.,
unavailability of the Electronic Filing System, extended local power outage, typhoon, Internet service
outage beyond the Filing Party’s control), may seek appropriate relief from the Court. The Court has
discretion to grant or deny relief in light of the circumstances.
14. Public Access
A. In compliance with the policy of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and the
E-Government Act of 2002, and in order to promote electronic access to documents
in the case files while also protecting personal privacy and other legitimate interests,
parties must refrain from including, or must partially redact where inclusion is
necessary, the following personal data identifiers from all pleadings filed with the
Court, including exhibits thereto, whether filed electronically or on paper, unless
otherwise ordered by the Court.
i. Social Security numbers. If an individual’s Social Security number must be
included in a pleading, only the last four digits of that number should be used.
ii. Names of minor children. If the involvement of a minor child must be
mentioned, only the initials of that child should be used.
iii. Dates of birth. If an individual’s date of birth must be included in a pleading,
only the year should be used.
iv. Financial account numbers. If financial account numbers are relevant, only the
last four digits of these numbers should be used.
v. Home addresses. If a home address must be included, only the city and state
should be listed.
B. In compliance with the E-Government Act of 2002, a party filing a document
containing the personal data identifiers listed above may:
i. file an unredacted version of the document under seal, or
ii. file a reference list under seal. The reference list will contain the complete
personal data identifier(s) and the redacted identifier(s) used in its(their) place
in the filing. All references in the case to the redacted identifiers included in the
reference list will be construed to refer to the corresponding complete personal
data identifier. The reference list must be filed under seal, and may be amended
as of right.
C. The unredacted version of the document or the reference list will be retained by the
Court as part of the record. The Court may, however, still require the party to file a
redacted copy for the public file.
D. The responsibility for redacting these personal identifiers rests solely with counsel and
the parties. The clerk will not review each pleading for compliance with this
procedure.
15. Hyperlinks
A. Electronically filed documents may contain the following types of hyperlinks:
i. Hyperlinks to other portions of the same document; and
ii. Hyperlinks to a location on the Internet that contains a source document for a
citation.
B. Hyperlinks to cited authority may not replace standard citation format. Any
electronically filed document that contains a hyperlink must also contain the standard
citation to the same material. This requirement ensures that anyone working with a
printed version of the document has the necessary citation, and that subsequent failure
of a hyperlink will not preclude finding the cited material.
C. Neither a hyperlink, nor any site to which it refers, will be considered part of the
record. Hyperlinks are simply convenient mechanisms for accessing material cited in
a filed document.
D. The Court accepts no responsibility for, and does not endorse, any product,
organization, or content at any hyperlinked site, or at any site to which that site may
be linked. The Court accepts no responsibility for the availability or functionality of
any hyperlink.
