Electronic court filings (ECF) are now required in the Northern District, as well as federal courts nationwide with a handful of exceptions such as the Western District of Wisconsin. I do not claim to be an ECF whiz (I generally have someone to handle the finer points for me), but it is important for attorneys to understand the finer point of electronic filing, you never know when your people will not be available to do it for you or when knowledge of ECF mechanics may change how you put together your filing. I have thought about writing an ECF guide for some time, but the Lawyer’s Right Hand* beat me to it, and did an excellent job. Click here for a very comprehensive look at what not to do when filing and what matters to the Clerk’s office.
* This is a great site, that every litigator should read. If you do not have time to scroll through all of the entries, check out the ECF post and the excellent discussion of commas – a great explanation of how to use one of the most important and misused grammar building blocks, although we disagree about whether a comma is required before the conjunction in a simple series. You will be hooked.