CM/ECF Information and Help Desk, Western District of Texas

Fifth Circuit Court Sets March 15, 2010 as date for Mandatory Electronic Case Filing (ECF)

Posted: 2/2/2010

Pursuant to Fifth Circuit Rule 25.2.1, the court established March 15, 2010, as the effective date for attorneys to use our ECF program to file in cases before the court. Unless excused for good cause, counsel must register as Filing Users under Rule 25.2.3 and comply with the court's electronic filing standards, posted separately on our website, 5th Circuit CMECF. Attorneys must be admitted to practice in the Fifth Circuit and are required to file an appearance form in each case they are involved in before making any electronic filings.

Even if you do not currently have a case before the court, we most strongly recommend that all members of the Fifth Circuit bar register now as Fifth Circuit filing users. Please go to the PACER Service Center website, PACER Service Center, and select the "REGISTER" link. There is no cost to register as a Fifth Circuit Filer with PACER. Then please take the time to become familiar with the information we have on our ECF website. When you do have a case, we ask that you file an appearance form as soon as possible to avoid filing delays.

CM/ECF or PACER Login and/or Registration

>> for CM/ECF

>> for PACER

Policies & Procedures

Privacy Policy

In accordance with the E-Government Act of 2002, and in order to promote electronic access to case files while also protecting personal privacy, rules providing protection for case file records took effect on December 1, 2007.

Parties should either exclude sensitive information in any documents filed with the court, or partially redact such sensitive information where inclusion is necessary and relevant to the case. All filers are encouraged to reference the Amended Privacy Policy and Public Access to Electronic Files, which details the rules of this court regarding redaction of personal identifiers.

Training

Electronic Filing in U.S. District Court: Tips for Effective Advocacy
(Federal Bar Association "Open Doors to Federal Court", July 25, 2008)
Electronic Filing in U.S. District Court: Tips for Effective Advocacy
PowerPoint Training File (Federal Bar Association "Open Doors to Federal Court", July 25, 2008)
Version 3.1 CM/ECF Updates
Attorney User's Manual This is a very large file!
Computer-Based Training Course
"CM/ECF: The Attorney's Perspective"

The links below are self-running executable files of Adobe Captivate movies. Click on the link and select "Save" from the "File Download" window. A window will open to allow you to save the file to a location on your local hard drive. Please remember where you save the file!. Since these files are rather large, it may take a while for the download to complete. When complete, go to the folder where you saved the file and uncompress, or "unzip" the file. Double-click on the .exe file to play the movie.

Attaching Your Pleadings and Attachments This is a very large file!
Civil Events Overview This is a very large file!
Criminal Events Overview This is a very large file!
Filing a Joint Motion This is a very large file!

General

Please note that you may e-file at any time, but CM/ECF support (ECF Support Desk) is only offered Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. CST, excluding court holidays. No after hours support is available. When relevant, please include the Case Number and the Judge's initials in the Subject: line of all emails to the court.

All admitted attorneys are required to register to file electronically and are required to update their email addresses, mailing address, and phone number online by logging into CM/ECF. In order to receive your Notices of Electronic Filing on your cases, you must ensure that your email addresses are up-to-date at all times.

Attorneys and other recipients the attorney has designated to receive e-mail notices are sent e-mail using the bcc (blind carbon copy) address field. The e-mail will be addressed to "cmecf_notices@txwd.uscourts.gov” and the e-mail will be from "txw_usdc_notice@txwd.uscourts.gov”. Attorneys must ensure these addresses are not blocked or marked as spam. Attorneys are also responsible for ensuring their e-mail box does not become full and cause e-mail notices to be rejected.

Please note that some of the files available are VERY large and may take several minutes to download to your computer, depending upon your internet connection.

Western District of Texas

u.s. district court u.s. pretrial services u.s. probation