Prepare now for looming e-filing switch at 5th Circuit

Effective March 15, attorneys must file pleadings electronically in cases before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They had better register and be ready for e-filing before the deadline, advises Charles R. “Fritz” Fulbruge III, the court’s clerk. Fulbruge says mandatory electronic case filing (ECF) applies to cases that come to the 5th Circuit from the district courts. However, Fulbruge says, “Anything that is case opening, where we have the original jurisdiction, has to be filed in paper.” Fulbruge says an attorney must be admitted to practice in the 5th Circuit and have registered as an ECF user before the court will accept an ECF pleading. An attorney can register, at no charge, through the PACER Service Center Web site. An attorney also must file an appearance form in a case before filing electronically, Fulbruge says. He warns attorneys not to wait to register as an ECF user until they need to file pleadings because there can be a delay between the time the attorney registers on PACER and the time the registration is complete. “It may be a day or two,” he says. Fulbruge also advises attorneys to read the information available on the 5th Circuit’s Web site  before trying to file. “We have found some people will call in and say, ‘I’m registered, but I can’t file,’ ” Fulbruge says. The problem, he says, may be that the attorney’s computer does not meet the technical specifications for ECF, something the 5th Circuit’s Web site discusses. Margaret Dufour, the clerk’s secretary who staffs the ECF help desk at the 5th Circuit, says a user who does not have the correct programs and updates on his or her browser will not be able to access the program for filing. Dufour suggests that attorneys test their computer capabilities to access the program before they need to file pleadings. The 5th Circuit has been offering electronic filing on a voluntary basis since Dec. 7, 2009. Fulbruge says 5,400 people had registered as ECF users as of March 4, but the 5th Circuit had received only 2,177 ECF filings by that date.
-- Mary Alice Robbins