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Requirements for Filing on CM/ECF

Requiremants for Filing

  • An individual PACER account. The PACER Username and Password serve as the attorney’s signature for purposes of Fed.R.Civ.P. 11 for documents that are filed electronically.
  • An e-filing account with the Court that is linked to the attorney’s individual PACER account. Attorneys who are not admitted generally can request an e-filing account. For more information, see https://www.moed.uscourts.gov/attorneys.
  • A web browser. Filers who use Mozilla Firefox experience the least number of errors while e-filing.
  • Software to create documents that can be converted to PDF format.
  • PDF software to prepare documents for filing and to view documents.
  • A scanner for imaging documents which do not exist in electronic format.

A Note Regarding PDF Documents

After converting or scanning a document to PDF format, it is important to “flatten” the document before uploading it to CM/ECF. When you flatten a PDF, you remove the interactive elements of a PDF form, such as checkboxes, text boxes, radio buttons, and drop-down lists that allow editing of the document, particularly when using a form that the Court provides. Flattening also removes links from documents and exhibits. One of the most common error messages received while uploading PDFs is prompted by the failure to remove this embedded data from your documents. The easiest way to do this is to “Print to PDF” (as opposed to “Save to PDF”).