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FAQs: cmecf

  • WHAT IF THE DOCUMENT WAS NOT CREATED ON A COMPUTER?

    The Court seeks to have as many documents as reasonably possible filed electronically. The Court recognizes, however, that some documents may not be available in electronic format-for example, certain medical records. Nevertheless, many of those documents can be easily and inexpensively scanned for electronic filing. Documents or objects that cannot be scanned reasonably will be filed and served in the traditional manner. Advance planning will help avoid the need to make last minute decisions on such matters.

  • INFORM THE COURT OF CHANGE OF NAME, BUSINESS ADDRESS/ AND OR PRIMARY E-MAIL ADDRESS CHANGES

    Attorneys admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio are required to submit a written notice of change of name, business address and/or email address to the Clerk upon a change in address pursuant to Local Civil Rule 83.5(i) and Local Criminal Rule 57.5(i).

     You must log in with your upgraded PACER account to make changes:

    1. Log in to Manage My Account.
    2. Click the Maintenance tab.
    3. Click Update Address Information
    4. Once the update is submitted and approved by the Court, you will be notified that the update has been accepted.
  • CONSIDERATIONS WHEN AN ATTORNEY LEAVES A FIRM

    When an attorney leaves a firm, both the attorney and the firm need to consider the implications to the CM/ECF noticing system. If cases will move with the attorney, all the attorney needs to do is to change his/her e-mail notification set up and submit a change of address to the Clerk's Office. If cases will remain with the firm, the firm will need to ensure that the Court docket accurately reflects the proper attorney of record and that the new attorney of record is properly set up to receive e-mail notification. Law firms may also wish to consider the best method of handling e-mail addressed to the firm for the departed attorney. Summarily removing the attorney from the firm's e-mail system with no further action, may result in notifications being missed. Firms may wish to consider whether their own e-mail systems should forward such e-mails to the attorney at his/her new address, or to another attorney within the firm. Naturally, these are issues that should be worked out between the departing attorney and the firm and will vary from case to case.

  • DIRECTING E-MAIL NOTICES TO MULTIPLE ADDRESSES

    Attorneys frequently list multiple e-mail addresses (secondary) when setting up their e-mail notification preferences so that staff members or clients can also be notified of filings electronically. Tip sheets for configuring secondary e-mail addresses are available on the Court's web site. Please note that the primary email is set up through PACER.

  • E-MAIL/NETWORK/ISP PROBLEMS

    Firms should be aware that e-mail notices can be redirected or rejected at several steps between the mailing of the notice by the CM/ECF system and the ultimate receipt by the user. The Court has learned of instances where a law firm's Internet Service Provider (ISP) or a law firm's own network, has rejected notices sent by the court as "spam." This has typically happened in instances where attorneys have listed multiple e-mail addresses in their e-mail notification set-up. When multiple addresses are entered, the CM/ECF system sends out a single message, with cc's. Some ISP's and firm networks deliver the message to the first e-mail address, but not to the others. Occasionally, all messages seem to have been rejected. If you suspect that this is happening to your firm, contact your network administrator and/or your ISP, in addition to the Court's help desk, to see what options are available to you. A future enhancement coming to the CM/ECF system will change the method of mailing messages to multiple addresses by using cc's, to sending each message individually. That may resolve many issues related to this problem.

  • UNREADABLE E-MAIL NOTICES

    If you consistently receive e-mail notices that are unreadable, your e-mail notification setup may be configured improperly for the e-mail system that you use. Some e-mail systems can parse HTML (hypertext markup language) text, which makes for a well formatted e-mail message, and some e-mail systems cannot. CM/ECF can send e-mail to both types of systems, but it needs to be told which type of message to send. You can reconfigure the manner in which notices will be sent to you by logging onto the system, clicking on Utilities, selecting Maintain Your Account, and updating your Email information to select "html" or "text" for the e-mail address you are configuring.

  • REVIEW DOCUMENT IN PDF PRIOR TO FILING

    All documents should be reviewed in their final PDF form prior to being filed with the Court. The review should ensure:
      • that the proper document is being filed (occasionally users select prior versions, or in some instances, the wrong document entirely),
      • that it has the proper format (caption, signature blocks, margins, etc.), and
      • that it has been converted properly to PDF format (check for completeness and legibility). Pay close attention to scanned documents-like any other copying process, it
        is easy for pages to get out of order, to become illegible, to be missed entirely, or to become mis-oriented (off center, upside down, etc.).

  • SIGNATURE BLOCKS

    Occasionally filers forget to add their s/ name to the signature block of the document. Please see paragraph 17 of the Electronic Filing Policies and Procedures Manual for a detailed explanation. In addition, occasionally the s/ name in the signature block does not match the user id and password used to submit the document. Ideally the two should match since it is the password and id that serve as the signature on the document for rule 11 purposes, while the s/ name merely serves as an indicator of who submitted the document to those who are viewing the document on screen or on paper and who are without access to the id/password that the document was submitted under.

  • MOTIONS FOR LEAVE TO FILE

    When filing a motion for leave to file, the underlying document which you are requesting leave to file should not be filed as a separate document, unless and until the motion is granted. If it is necessary to file the underlying document at the time the motion for leave to file is submitted (for instance, if it is necessary for the court to review that document to determine whether filing should be permitted), the underlying document should be filed as an attachment to the motion for leave.

  • FILING MULTIPART MOTIONS

    Multipart motions are discouraged. It is preferred that such motions be filed separately. However, if it is necessary to file a multipart motion, attorneys should take care that all parts (each event) of the motion are selected in the motion filing process so that the court has the opportunity to grant or deny each part separately.  In order to select two or more different motion events hold down the control key while you select each part of the motion.

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