Utah District Court
CMECF Updates
CMECF Updates
Friday, January 25, 2008
Very Large Filings
The court recently received two very large electronic filings. Each of the documents was nearly 35 inches by 45 inches!
Apparently the system does not check for document physical dimensions.
Of course, Acrobat scales the document so you can see it on screen, but the header applied by CM/ECF almost vanishes, it is so small
Apparently the system does not check for document physical dimensions.
Of course, Acrobat scales the document so you can see it on screen, but the header applied by CM/ECF almost vanishes, it is so small
compared to the type in the document itself.
Click this image and see the enormous staple holes!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Boldly Going . . . . to CM/ECF Version 3.1
The District of Utah will move to CM/ECF version 3.1 on February 2.
Implications:
Implications:
- file Friday February 1st as the system will be down on the 2nd for installation (see the court's home page for more specific information);
- filings made SuperBowl Sunday will use the new 3.1 software (but who will be working that day?); and
- make sure your computers have Internet Explorer or Firefox browser, as Netscape will not work with version 3.1
Yes, that last point is correct. The long touted Netscape browser, sometimes recommended as the only really compatible browser, will not work with CM/ECF version 3.1.
For prior postings about this version, see The New Look of CM/ECF 3.1; Release 3.1 Set for Summer 2007; Another Version 3.1 Feature (regarding Social Security cases); and Hyperlink Possibilities Expand in CM/ECF 3.1.
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Feeling rejected?
If your PDF is rejected, it may be for one of several reasons. The most frequent is violation of the 3 megabye size limit per PDF file, set in the Administrative Procedures II. C. 2.
In the court, we use Lotus Notes, which gets a Print to PDF button when you install Acrobat Standard. Unfortunately, any PDF file created by this method cannot be filed in CM/ECF. A rather cryptic message appears telling the user the PDF is not "well formed."
The Western District of Washington has listed some other reasons a PDF may be rejected. One reason is password security and another is the use of JavaScript by your PDF creator.
Western Washington's site mentions another potential problem:
In the court, we use Lotus Notes, which gets a Print to PDF button when you install Acrobat Standard. Unfortunately, any PDF file created by this method cannot be filed in CM/ECF. A rather cryptic message appears telling the user the PDF is not "well formed."
The Western District of Washington has listed some other reasons a PDF may be rejected. One reason is password security and another is the use of JavaScript by your PDF creator.
The reason that PDFs filed in the court cannot contain OpenAction JavaScript commands is because they can be used to track those who view a PDF and to install malware and viruses.If your PDF contains any password security, it will not be accepted.
If you receive this error message"ERROR: Document contains code which may cause an external action (such as launching an application). This PDF document cannot be accepted."
Western Washington's site mentions another potential problem:
Word Perfect and Word files converted to PDF via Acrobat can cause this behavior when Acrobat is set to "High Quality Print"- often the default. In the distiller settings make sure the Default Setting is set to Standard, not "High Quality Print" or "Press Quality". These settings actually add an attachment to the pdf file. To get to this setting, select the Adobe PDF printer, go to Properties, Adobe PDF Settings tab, Adobe PDF conversion settings, Default Settings.¶ 9:38 AM 1 comments
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Appellate Courts Move to CM/ECF
According to the Federal Court Management Report for December 2007, the Eighth Circuit is leading as Courts of Appeal move to CM/ECF.
"The Eighth Circuit began accepting most attorney-filed documents using ECF in June 2007. In less than six months, the court registered over 5,000 attorneys and has had nearly 2,000 attorneys file documents in ECF. No other court has plans to go live on ECF before 2008, but five courts met in St. Louis at the end of November for an ECF Workshop where they reviewed the experience of the 8th Circuit and discussed ECF best practices and lessons learned. Version 2.0 of the appellate software was delivered on schedule on October 1, 2007, and it already has been installed in two of the four courts of appeals. Work has just begun on Version 2.1 which will be released to the courts in October 2008."
The Tenth Circuit has been using CM/ECF internally as its filing system since September 4, 2007. The policy changes for the Tenth Circuit implicated by this change are listed in a document on the court's web site at http://www.ck10.uscourts.gov/downloads/CM_notice_to_counsel.pdf "While this conversion will not involve attorney/litigant filing, it is the first step towards that transition."
In addition, the Tenth Circuit has posted its rules changes necessitated by CM/ECF at http://www.ck10.uscourts.gov/downloads/generalorder-efile.pdf. ¶ 8:43 AM 0 comments
"The Eighth Circuit began accepting most attorney-filed documents using ECF in June 2007. In less than six months, the court registered over 5,000 attorneys and has had nearly 2,000 attorneys file documents in ECF. No other court has plans to go live on ECF before 2008, but five courts met in St. Louis at the end of November for an ECF Workshop where they reviewed the experience of the 8th Circuit and discussed ECF best practices and lessons learned. Version 2.0 of the appellate software was delivered on schedule on October 1, 2007, and it already has been installed in two of the four courts of appeals. Work has just begun on Version 2.1 which will be released to the courts in October 2008."
The Tenth Circuit has been using CM/ECF internally as its filing system since September 4, 2007. The policy changes for the Tenth Circuit implicated by this change are listed in a document on the court's web site at http://www.ck10.uscourts.gov/downloads/CM_notice_to_counsel.pdf "While this conversion will not involve attorney/litigant filing, it is the first step towards that transition."
In addition, the Tenth Circuit has posted its rules changes necessitated by CM/ECF at http://www.ck10.uscourts.gov/downloads/generalorder-efile.pdf. ¶ 8:43 AM 0 comments
