To e-file court documents, you register with the court’s electronic filing system, upload your pleading as a properly formatted PDF, apply an electronic signature, pay the filing fee, and save the Notice of Electronic Filing the system returns as your proof of submission. In federal court, that system is CM/ECF, accessed through a PACER account; state courts run their own portals with rules that vary by jurisdiction.1United States Courts. Electronic Filing (CM/ECF) The federal procedure below is the baseline, and most state systems track the same core steps.
Attorneys and represented parties in federal court must file electronically, and the same rule applies in most state courts through their own systems and local rules.2Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 5 – Serving and Filing Pleadings and Other Papers
Get Registered Before You Need to File
Federal e-filing runs on the NextGen CM/ECF system, and you need a PACER account before you can request filing privileges. Register through the “Manage My Account” portal on the PACER website, and expect each court where you plan to file to separately approve you as a filer.3PACER. Register for an Account Registration collects your name, contact information, date of birth, and bar identification number, and the court verifies your credentials before granting access. Do this well in advance. Waiting until you have a deadline to register is how filers miss deadlines.
State courts run separate portals, and registration differs from state to state. Some states use a single statewide system; others operate court by court. Expect to provide your professional credentials, set up secure login information, and link a credit card or bank account to cover fees.
Prepare the Document the System Will Accept
Every e-filing system takes PDFs, and the PDF must be text-searchable rather than a flat scanned image. A text-searchable PDF lets the court and other parties highlight, copy, and search the content; a scanned image is essentially a photograph of paper. If you scan a physical document, run optical character recognition (OCR) on it before uploading.
Courts impose maximum file sizes, commonly between 10 and 25 megabytes per document. When an exhibit exceeds the limit, split it into multiple files or compress it. File names matter too: many courts require the case number, document type, and filing party in the name, so a defendant’s motion to dismiss might be filed as 2025-cv-01234_MTD_Defendant.pdf. Check the local rules for the exact format.
Strip the Metadata
PDFs carry embedded metadata: author name, creating software, edit history, and sometimes tracked changes or comments. Filing without cleaning that data can inadvertently reveal privileged strategy notes, the identity of a ghostwriter, or internal revision history. Open the document properties and delete unnecessary fields before uploading. Most PDF editors have a “sanitize” or “remove hidden information” feature that does this in one step. Removal is permanent, so keep an unstripped working copy on your own machine.
Redact Personal Identifiers
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2 requires you to redact five categories of personal information from anything filed with the court, whether electronic or paper.4Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 5.2 – Privacy Protection For Filings Made with the Court
- Social Security and taxpayer identification numbers: last four digits only.
- Financial account numbers: last four digits only.
- Dates of birth: year only.
- Names of minors: initials only.
- Home addresses in criminal cases: city and state only.
Redaction has to permanently remove the underlying text, not just hide it. A black rectangle drawn on top of text in a basic PDF editor can often be dragged, deleted, or copied around, exposing the information underneath. Use a dedicated redaction tool that deletes the underlying content, or print the redacted version to a new PDF so the original text no longer exists in the file.
Sign the Document Electronically
Filing through your CM/ECF account with your login credentials counts as your signature under the federal rules, as long as your name appears in the signature block.5United States Courts. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 5(d)(3)(C) The convention is typing “/s/ Jane Smith” where a handwritten signature would go. That signature carries the same weight as a wet one and triggers the same Rule 11 certifications, including that the filing is not for an improper purpose and that its legal arguments have merit.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 11 – Signing Pleadings, Motions, and Other Papers
When multiple parties need to sign, the filer typically obtains consent from each signer and adds “/s/ [Name]” for each. The filer is responsible for confirming every listed signer actually authorized the signature, and some courts require you to retain written evidence of that consent for a set period.
Walk Through the Submission
After logging in, you either initiate a new case or search for an existing one by case number. Opening the case pulls up the electronic docket, where you upload the prepared PDFs from your computer. The system asks you to tag each document with a code identifying what it is: a motion, an answer, a brief, a proposed order. Choosing the wrong code can delay processing or lead the clerk to reject the filing.
Once everything is uploaded and tagged, the system calculates the filing fee and you authorize payment through the account you set up during registration. A review screen then shows all uploaded documents, their codes, the payment amount, and the case information. Check every field on this screen. Fixing a mistake after submission is much more work than catching one here.
When you confirm, the system generates a Notice of Electronic Filing. That NEF is your official proof the documents were filed, and it carries the date and time stamp that goes on the record. Save or print it right away. If anyone later disputes whether you met a deadline, the NEF is your evidence.
Fees and Fee Waivers
E-filing systems charge the same statutory fees you would pay at the clerk’s window. Filing a new civil complaint in federal court costs $405, made up of a $350 statutory fee and a $55 administrative fee. State portals often add a separate service or convenience fee charged by the third-party company operating the system, commonly a few dollars per transaction or a small percentage of the filing fee.
If you cannot afford the fees, federal law lets you request a waiver by filing a petition to proceed in forma pauperis. You submit an affidavit detailing your income, assets, and expenses to show you cannot pay.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 1915 – Proceedings in Forma Pauperis If the court grants the petition, filing fees and certain other costs are waived. Most state courts have a similar process with their own eligibility criteria and forms.
Making the Deadline
This is where filers get burned: the cutoff is midnight in the court’s time zone, not yours.8Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 6 – Computing and Extending Time; Time for Motion Papers If you sit in California and file into a federal court in New York, your deadline is midnight Eastern, which is 9:00 p.m. Pacific. Filing one minute after midnight in the court’s zone means you missed the deadline, even if it is still the same calendar day where you are. Courts have consistently refused to extend deadlines based on the filer’s local time, treating that as impermissibly adding extra time.
Do not plan to file at the last minute. Portal crashes, internet outages, and upload errors happen, and they happen most often right before major deadlines when traffic spikes. If the court’s whole CM/ECF system goes down, the chief judge may issue a general order extending deadlines, but that is not guaranteed and typically requires a system-wide outage rather than a problem on your end. A frozen laptop or a dropped home connection is your problem, not the court’s. Build in a buffer of at least several hours.
If the Clerk Rejects Your Filing
After you submit, a court clerk reviews the filing before it becomes part of the official record. If something is wrong, the clerk rejects it and sends a notification explaining why. Common reasons include picking the wrong document type, uploading an unreadable or non-searchable PDF, missing a required attachment, failing to redact personal information, or paying the wrong fee.
Read the clerk’s explanation, correct the specific issue, and resubmit as a new filing. You will usually pay the fee again, though some courts waive the duplicate if the rejection came from a system error. When the original submission was close to a deadline, this creates a real problem. Some courts treat the original submission time as the filing date if you promptly cure the deficiency; others start the clock from the corrected resubmission. This distinction matters, so check the local rules of the specific court.
Service Happens Through the System, With Two Exceptions
One practical benefit of e-filing is that it handles service of most documents automatically. When you file through CM/ECF, the system sends the Notice of Electronic Filing to every registered user in the case, and that electronic notice counts as valid service under the federal rules. You do not need a separate certificate of service for those parties.2Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 5 – Serving and Filing Pleadings and Other Papers
Two limits apply. Automatic electronic service only works for parties who are registered CM/ECF users; if someone in the case is not registered, such as a pro se party who files on paper, you have to serve them by mail, hand delivery, or another permitted method. And initial process, the summons and complaint that starts a lawsuit, is never served through the e-filing system. You still arrange personal service, service by mail, or another method authorized by Rule 4. E-filing handles ongoing case documents, not the initial notice that brings a party into the case.
Who Is Not Required to E-File
E-filing is mandatory for attorneys and represented parties in federal court, with a few carveouts.9United States Courts. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 5(d)(3)(A) Self-represented litigants may e-file only if the court allows it by order or local rule, and a court can require them to e-file only if reasonable exceptions are built in. Many federal courts let pro se litigants choose between electronic filing and paper submission at the clerk’s office. State courts handle this differently.
Sealed and confidential filings vary by court. Many federal districts now permit e-filing of sealed documents through CM/ECF using a restricted-access feature that keeps the document out of public view while the motion to seal is pending; others still require paper submission for certain sealed materials, particularly in criminal cases. Check the specific court’s local rules or administrative orders. Items that cannot be converted to PDF, such as oversized maps or physical objects, still get delivered to the clerk’s office. Courts may also permit paper filing for good cause, such as a genuine technical emergency, though the filer typically has to explain the reason and often follow up with an electronic copy once the issue is resolved.