Making a PDF for e-filing

I assume that the reason many readers find themselves at this site is because they are lawyers that need to e-file and want to learn how, preferably in 15 minutes or less. The basic requirements for e-filing in federal courts are listed at the US Courts website. At its simplest, there are just a couple of tools that an attorney needs, along with a basic understanding of the process. Let's go over the list from the CM/ECF user info site:

A personal computer running a standard platform such as Windows or Macintosh.
Okay, not many lawyers these days are running Linux or Amiga or DOS or whatever. I assume if you can figure out how to run your practice on Linux, you can figure out how to troubleshoot any issues that arise from e-filing. Your biggest problem would be finding IE 5.5 . . . Not sure why they put this in there, other than to protect themselves from answering a lot of esoteric help-line questions from people that are still using WordStar.

A PDF-compatible word processor. Basically, any word processor or text editor should work. At its most basic, producing a PDF is a variation on normal printing. Anything you can print, you can turn into a PDF. Again, most lawyers are using some non-DOS version of WP or Word, so you may be able to use that software to do double duty (see below on word processors). Anyone out there making PDFs with WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS?

Internet service. If you’re reading this, you have it. If you plan to e-file anything bigger than a two-page document, consider getting faster service.

Netscape Navigator version 4.6 or 4.7.( Netscape 6 is not recommended for use with CM/ECF.) and Internet Explorer 5.5. Netscape Version 7.02 and Internet Explorer 6.0 are currently being tested to certify compatibility. Some users have had positive results with these versions. Now this is a little strange -- as a rule, any computer can produce a PDF file if you use some ingenuity, and the rest of these requirements are fairly generic. But this requirement (web browsers specified right down to the version number) is pretty darned specific without really saying why. If anyone has more info on this, please let us know. I assume since they use the browser to upload the filed documents, it may have to do with security. The web world is starting to realize that it’s good practice to design your site to conform to standard specs so that any browser will accurately render your pages. The court-specified Mac versions are so old and lame that it’s not clear why anyone would use them except to access CM/ECF. But I digress . . .

Software to convert documents from a word processor format to portable document format (PDF). PDFWriter is recommended. Acrobat Writer Version 3.X, 4.X and 5.0 meet the CM/ECF filing requirements. PDFWriter is the "print driver" that comes with Adobe Acrobat, and is the simplest method of producing a PDF with Acrobat. Note that you cannot do this using the free Adobe Reader. Also note that it doesn’t say you can use Acrobat 6. The actual PDF specification – the open standard that defines what constitutes a PDF file –changed from PDF 1.4 in Acrobat 5 to PDF 1.5 in Acrobat 6. However, if you are using Acrobat 6, you can select your PDF spec – 1.3, 1.4, or 1.5 – in the Distiller General Settings or in the PDFWriter settings that you access when you select PDFWriter as your “printer.” Check with your court clerk, but if you use Acrobat 6, you may need to specify PDF 1.4 as your output for e-filings. Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal to change it.

There have also been a number of developments in software that should allow you to fully comply with this spec without resorting to the full Acrobat package. But see above regarding the PDF spec, and make sure it outputs the right flavor. Mac OS X will save any file as a PDF. It's purely the plain-vanilla PDF, but it should meet the basic requirements. WordPerfect will export its files as PDFs, as will the open source OpenOffice package. If all you want to do is produce a PDF so you can e-file it, the function in your word processor may be enough. (But think of all the wonderfulness you’ll be missing out on!) Finally, there are free/cheap PDF-making software products available that do the job with varying degrees of elegance, ease and expense. Again, since PDF is an “open standard,” any product that spits out a file that conforms to the spec ought to do. As a rule of thumb, I’d say that if you produce a PDF via whatever means, and you can open it in Adobe Reader 4 or 5 and it doesn’t blow anything up, it’s fine. There’s no indication that there are going to be fancier requirements – metadata, signatures, etc. – from the courts anytime soon.

Adobe Reader. (The Viewer Formerly Known As Adobe Acrobat Reader.) You’ve got it on your computer somewhere. If you click on a PDF file and Reader doesn’t come up, go here and download it.

A scanner may be necessary to create electronic images of documents that are not in your word processing system. If you need to file documents that you only have in paper form you've got to digitize them, and the digital format must also be PDF. This topic -- including hardware, software, and implementation issues -- fills entire websites and discussion boards. There is an large support industry devoted to scanning mountains of paper to create fodder for the legal system. We can talk about cost-benefit considerations in detail if anyone is interested, but for ease of implementation, I suggest that if you are going the do-it-yourself route, you find a scanner that a) is big and fast enough to handle the volume of paper you regularly deal with; and b) scans directly into PDF format without a bunch of other steps. You may also want to check with Kinko's, but getting a print shop or service bureau to do your scanning, OCR, and PDF conversion soon runs into a lot of money.

So here's the basic workflow:

Create your pleading or other filing using your regular word processing software. If it allows you to save as a PDF, do that. If you use Acrobat or some other PDF-creating software, go through the required steps. If this basic creation process is any harder than selecting a printer and printing the document, think about a different software package.

Scan your paper, save the files as PDFs. Although the court basics don't say so, I'd OCR these documents as a courtesy in order to allow text searches. Give your documents human readable names if possible.

Log on to your court’s website using your (approved) browser, and let her rip.

I’d love to hear how lawyers in all the various jurisdictions are faring with this system.

-- Dave