The PACER Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system is the Federal Judiciary’s comprehensive case management system for all bankruptcy, district, and appellate courts. CM/ECF allows courts to accept filings and provides access to filed documents online.  This is the system you will use as an attorney to make electronic filings with the federal courts.

Did you know that the Judiciary is planning to change the technical standard for filing electronic documents in CM/ECF from PDF documents to PDF/A documents?

What is PDF/A?

PDF/A is an International Standards Organization (ISO) standard document format.  It is a subset of the PDF standard which excludes those PDF features that give rise to concerns about the ability to archive documents.

Why are they changing to PDF/A?

The change from PDF to PDF/A will improve the archiving and preservation of case-related documents.

What do you need to view a PDF/A document?

A PDF viewer like Adobe (or the PDF viewer you currently use) should already have the ability to view PDF/A documents.

How can you create a PDF/A document?

PDF/A documents are most commonly created using: a word processor program, a scanned document or Adobe Acrobat.  To learn more about creating PDF/A documents, visit the library for help or earn 100 Lexis points by watching the video on Docket Research and viewing the handout: Creating a PDF/A Document, available in the UC Law Library & Lexis Prepare to Practice Series.

For additional information about the UC Law Library & Lexis Prepare to Practice Series contact Shannon Kemen.