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About Electronic Case Filing

CM/ECF provides courts the option to have case file documents in electronic format and to accept filings over the Internet. The system is named Case Management/Electronic Case Filing (CM/ECF), or ECF for short.

ECF allows attorneys and others to file and view documents from their office, home or anywhere they have access to the Internet, 24 hours a day. Documents are automatically docketed as part of the filing process and they are immediately available.

Attorneys are required to file documents directly over the Internet. Case documents are accessible to the public over the Internet using standard computer hardware, an Internet connection, a browser and a Portable Document Format (pdf) reader. To file electronically also requires a word processor, a PDF writer, and possibly a document scanner.

There are no added fees for filing documents over the Internet using ECF; existing document filing fees do apply. Electronic access to court data is available through the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) program. Litigants receive one free copy of the documents electronically filed in their cases, which they can save or print for their files. Additional copies are available to attorneys and the general public for viewing and downloading at ten cents per page, with a maximum cost per document of $3.00. Directed by Congress to fund electronic access thru user fees, the judiciary has set the fee at the lowest possible level sufficient to recoup program costs.

The Judicial Conference has adopted a set of recommendations relating to privacy and public access to electronic case files. As part of the process to develop these recommendations, public comment was sought on a number of possible approaches. The Judicial Conference’s Committee on Court Administration and Case Management is overseeing implementation of these recommendations.



 

Setting up E-Mail Notification

Users can receive e-mail notification of all electronic filings in cases they are interested in by setting up the email notification in their user account. To do this, log in to ECF and then:

Click on Utilities
Click on Maintain Your Account
Click on Email Information
Click on Add New Email Address
Enter your primary Email Address

To add secondary email addresses, click on Add New Email Address and add any additional email addresses

To receive notification of activity for cases in which you are interested, click on the box under “Add additional cases for noticing”. Enter the case number using the format of YY-####. Click on “Find Case”, select the appropriate case and click on “Add Case”.

When finished setting up your account, click on “Return to Person Information Screen” and then “Submit”. You will receive a confirmation screen listing the cases and email options that you have selected.