Chicago IP Attorney & Lawyer : R. David Donoghue : Chicago IP Litigation Blog

The Northern District started making copies of requested court transcripts (not depositions) available online via Pacer – click here for the Northern District's statement on its new transcript procedures. This is great news for Northern District litigators and litigants. It will be much easier to get information about ongoing cases and, in time, prior cases, information that used to require calls to court reporters or prior counsel.

But the online transcripts also create additional responsibilities.* Pursuant to recently added Fed. R. Civ. P. 5.2 (click here for the Blog's discussion for 5.2), certain personal information – social security numbers, identities of minors, and financial account numbers, for example, must be redacted from filed papers. Counsel for a party has twenty one days after a transcript is filed to e-file a Transcript Redaction Request that specifically identifies the information to be redacted and its exact location within the transcript. Also, the request cannot fully list the information to be removed, because that would require redaction of the Redaction Request.

If redaction of information beyond personal identifiers is desired, a separate motion to redact must be filed with the court. When a transcript is redacted, only the redacted version will be made publicly available.

A couple of other notes regarding availability and pricing:

• Transcripts will be e-filed by the court reporter within three days of delivery to the party requesting the transcript.

• For ninety days after filing, a transcript will be viewable only electronically and only at the Clerk's office. After ninety days, the transcript will be publicly available anywhere online.

• Pacer's fees will not be capped at thirty pages for transcripts.

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As promised last week, here are highlights of the substantive changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that went into effect last Saturday, December 1st:*

• New Rule 5.2 Privacy Protection  This rule limits what personal information can be left in public pleadings without redaction, unless a court orders the information to be publicly filed. Public filings may only include:  the last four digits of a social security number, tax identification number or other financial account number; the year of a person’s birth; and the initials of known minors (not whole names). All other information must be redacted or left out of the papers.

• Rule 11 Signing Pleadings  Signature blocks on all filings must now include an email address, in addition to counsel’s or a pro se party’s phone number and physical address. The comments to Rule 11 note that inclusion of an email address is a courtesy and is not an automatic consent to email service. For that, you still have to get a separate agreement with the opposing party.

• Rule 26 Discovery  As with Rule 11, signature blocks on all discovery papers must now include an email address, in addition to counsel’s or a pro se party’s phone number and physical address. The comments to Rule 26 note that if a party lacks an email address, a physical address or a telephone number, the party need not supply the nonexistent information. So, at least Rule 26 does not require that counsel get email accounts.  But Rule 11 does not have the same exception, so arguably Rule 11 does require that counsel have email accounts.

* This is only a summary of the substantive changes that I found most interesting or important. It is not a detailed explanation of all substantive changes.  For example, I did not explain the changes to Fed. R. Civ. P. 4 regarding summonses. If you want detailed advice regarding the Federal Rules, please consult your attorney or dig in to your copy of the Federal Rules.

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