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Utah District Court Blog

This blog contains current public information regarding the Utah District Court CM/ECF Electronic Filing System. This blog is informal and unofficial.

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Last Entry: October 12, 2009 at 14:14:00

Utah District Court Web Site Down

Posted on October 12, 2009
Due to a power outage at the circuit court level, the District of Utah internet site was down from Saturday October 10, 2009 at 6 am through Sunday October 11 at noon. During this time, the Court's CM/ECF portal was open, but this may have been unknown for those who customarily access CM/ECF via the link on the court's web site...

New Redaction Reminders

Posted on October 06, 2009
The court has loaded a new version 3.2.3 of CM/ECF. There is a new box that e-filers must check every time they log in. If the box is not checked this error message is displayed:You must check the redaction rules checkbox to login to CM/ECF.Also, the message on the last screen before submission has been changed to add: "Have you redacted?"

CM/ECF 4.0 May Renumber Old Docket Entries

Posted on September 30, 2009
Districts using CM/ECF version 4.0 (being tested in Utah now) report that this new version may create problems for existing documents which reference previously filed papers. While current CM/ECF versions number the main document filed as 5-1, and attachments as 5-2, 5-3, etc...

PACER in the Spotlight

Posted on September 10, 2009
Two posts on yesterday's beSpacific blog highlight PACER and the attention recently focused on the for-fee service. The first post directs readers to the PACER spending survey directed to law libraries related to the law librarians' petition to improve PACER...

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NARA says "Improve Your Image"

Posted on July 01, 2009
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has published higher standards for scanning resolution, which better support archival preservation. Threfore, the Administrative Office of the United States Courts is asking courts and attorneys to use scanner settings of 300 pixels per inch (ppi) or higher...

Tenth Circuit Moves To Electronic Filing

Posted on April 28, 2009
A General Order from the Tenth Circuit (March 18, 2009) marks the Circuit's move to electronic filing. " On March 31, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit will transition to voluntary ECF. On June 1, 2009, ECF will become mandatory for counsel of record...

Privacy Awareness

Posted on April 09, 2009
In response to recent concerns about personal data appearing in court filings, the courts have modified the login pages of CM/ECF to "display a message to remind filing attorneys of their obligation to redact personalidentifiers."A recent letter from Senator Lieberman to the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure asked the courts to review their processes:I have concerns that not enough has been done to protect personalinformation contained in publicly available court filings, potentially violatinganother provision of the E-Government Act...

Wait a Minute Mr. Postman!

Posted on April 08, 2009
The court has received a rush of replies to CM/ECF Notices of Electronic Filing. Like movie stars, we don't reply to our e-mail, but we wonder what happens when these messages are not received by intended recipients. (click an image to see a larger version...

Unusual Signatures for Other Counsel

Posted on March 25, 2009
The Utah Administrative Procedures for electronic filing specify the way to denote the signature of other counsel on motions or stipulations. Two recent filings show those instructions may be confusing. The instructions require (i) /s/ and the typed name of the other attorney; (ii) a description of the reason justifying the signature; and (iii) an elecronic signature or /s/ and the typed name of the filing attorney:Signatures of Other Attorneys...

Once a Week is Enough to Review Email?

Posted on March 17, 2009
Not that the court monitors all auto-replies to Notices of Electronic Filing (sometimes we do get humorous/incriminating rants meant for opposing counsel, staff or the ether) but this one raised lots of speculation. Pursuant to my email management policy, your email will be retrieved and reviewed on March 19, 2009...

New Password Recovery Tool

Posted on March 13, 2009
The District of Utah has a new feature for attorneys who have lost their CMECF password. It is at the login screen on the outside server.Clicking on the link will take the user to a page where they can enter their login or their primary password, which will trigger an email that will allow them to reset their password...

What motions are pending in my case?

Posted on March 02, 2009

CM/ECF 4.0 Released to Select Courts

Posted on March 02, 2009

Electronic Summons - Return Filed

Posted on January 22, 2009
The first summons issued electronically by the clerk in the District of Utah has been returned. The header of the summons shows that it was docketed as issued on January 7th, and then docketed after service on January 14th.Under the new program, counsel may email summons to the court, which will affix a signature and seal and then return the summons to the attorney for service...

New York Times Praises Dual and Large Monitors

Posted on January 16, 2009
The most recent in many articles praising the productivity increases from large screen or dual monitors appeared in yesterday's New York Times. Farhad Manjoo says that his "experience confirmed [that] having a lot of screen space significantly raised my productivity...

Summons Issued Electronically by the Court

Posted on January 06, 2009
As of today, attorneys no longer need to come to the courthouse with paper to have a summons issued. This notice was sent to all members of the court's bar today.Notice From the Clerk of CourtAttorneys may request that the clerk of court issue summons in civil cases electronically...

PACER Alternative

Posted on December 15, 2008
The man who reportedly prodded the SEC into allowing free access to corporate filings has set his sights on PACER. According to WIRED, Carl Malamud, who runs the nonprofit open-government group Public.Resource.Org, is "asking lawyers to donate their PACER documents one by one, which he then classifies and bundles into ZIP files published for free at his organization's website...

District of Utah Tests Electronic Summons

Posted on December 02, 2008
The District of Utah is testing electronic issuance of summons. As Bob Wilde pointed out in a recent email, the lack of electronic summons issuance discourages electronic filing of complaints.My secretary and I were discussing the anomalous situation which has virtually all documents getting e-filed but requires us to come to the clerk?s office to get summons issued...

Sprint -Cogent Update

Posted on November 20, 2008
The dispute between Sprint and Cogent continues, but the Administrative Office of the United States Courts has "been advised that Sprint does not intend to break the connections with Cogent without providing advance warning. Sprint has stated that they are committed to providing a minimum of sixty (60) days notice before any shutdown occurs...

Sprint and Cogent Make Temporary Peace

Posted on November 03, 2008
As reported last week, Sprint terminated its internet connections with Cogent due to a dispute between the two firms. Between Thursday afternoon, October 30, and Sunday afternoon, November 2, those internet peering connections were severed. This prevented any law firm or any member of the public using Cogent as an ISP from getting access to CM/ECF, PACER, or the courts' public web sites...

Sprint-Cogent Dispute May Disrupt CM/ECF Access for Cogent Customers

Posted on October 31, 2008
A news report today on the PCWorld Business Center states:Sprint-Nextel has decided to sever its Internet connection with Cogent, another Internet service provider, according to a statement from Cogent.Internet health data supplied by Keynote Systems indicates that Cogent and Sprint are no longer exchanging traffic...

Automate Cross-Document Hyperlinks

Posted on September 19, 2008
In versions 3.1 and above, CM/ECF users may file a document that includes a hyperlink to a previously filed document in the same case or to any other document in any other case that resides on the CM/ECF system, even in other courts. When the judge reads a memorandum reference to a declaration or deposition, a cross-document hyperlink in the memorandum can take the judge to that declaration or deposition...

PDFs That Don't Appear

Posted on July 29, 2008
A CM/ECF user recently presented this issue:I have two PCs with IE 7 and Acrobat 6 standard. On one system there's no problem. On the other, when I click on the NEF document link or click on any document link on any docket report I get a blank page and a yellow triangle with exclamation point in the lower left corner...

Another Redaction that Wasn't Effective

Posted on May 28, 2008
Douglas Mallan writes in the Connecticut Law Tribune about "A Major Redaction Gaffe" in a case involving General Electric. Again, embarassing information specifically intended NOT to be public is in the public's hands.An "Emergency Motion to Seal by Consent of Parties" filed May 22, 2008 in Schaefer v...

Kansas State Court Suspends Bankruptcy Lawyer for Not E-Filing

Posted on April 18, 2008
In the first known case of its type, a lawyer has been disciplined by a state disciplinary authority in part for for failure to electronically file in federal court. The lawyer was generally neglectful of two clients' matters, and dishonest with them and with disciplinary authorities, but as to one client, e-filing was a central issued...

WordPerfect X4 Adds PDF Features

Posted on April 17, 2008
The new WordPerfect X4 adds many features to further enable its PDF functionality. Among those listed on the Corel website in addition to the PDF Import feature in WordPerfect X3 are:PDF Image ImportPDF/A standard, used for archivingPDF File Size Options

Failures to Receive E Notice - NOT Excusable

Posted on April 07, 2008
Two cases recently summarized by LexisNexis CourtLink considered different circumstances in which counsel failed to receive enotice, and also failed to obtain any relief from the court.In the first, In Re Sulzer, No. 1:01-CV-9000, MDL Docket No. 1401, 2006 U...

It's That Easy!

Posted on March 11, 2008
Chambers received a call yesterday from a lawyer who had items due -- but whose office was without power. Within minutes, a one day extension was on the CM/ECF record.Docket Text:ORDER extending to March 11, 2008 the deadline for Plaintiffs to serve discovery requests and/or file a motion to supplement the administrative record, based on representations of [Plaintiff's] counsel that an electrical power failure has affected his office today...

Do-it-yourself Filing Dates?

Posted on February 27, 2008
A recent filing contains an ineffective attempt to state a filing date before the date of actual filing. (click image to enlarge)The secretary for the attorney had called the help desk on the morning of the 20th to describe the unfortunate events. She said she loaded the Response and all the attachments on the 19th, right before she went home...

Netscape Browser Support Ends

Posted on February 10, 2008
"Official support for all Netscape client products will end on March 1st, 2008, according to Netscape's website. The official announcement states development work ended February 1st. "We'll continue to release security patches for the current version of the browser, Netscape Navigator until February 1, 2008...

CM/ECF 3.1 is Up in Utah

Posted on February 02, 2008
The team at the District of Utah has completed installation of CM/ECF 3.1.2. This notice appears on the CM/ECF page:The new version has a distinctive look -- cascading menus are the most prominent:Testing will continue through the weekend.Users will notice that they need to use Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer to work with this version of CM/ECF.

Very Large Filings

Posted on January 25, 2008
The court recently received two very large electronic filings. Each of the documents was nearly 35 inches by 45 inches! Apparently the system does not check for document physical dimensions.Of course, Acrobat scales the document so you can see it on screen, but the header applied by CM/ECF almost vanishes, it is so smallcompared to the type in the document itself...

Boldly Going . . . . to CM/ECF Version 3.1

Posted on January 24, 2008
The District of Utah will move to CM/ECF version 3.1 on February 2.Implications:file Friday February 1st as the system will be down on the 2nd for installation (see the court's home page for more specific information);filings made SuperBowl Sunday will use the new 3...

Feeling rejected?

Posted on January 15, 2008
If your PDF is rejected, it may be for one of several reasons. The most frequent is violation of the 3 megabye size limit per PDF file, set in the Administrative Procedures II. C. 2.In the court, we use Lotus Notes, which gets a Print to PDF button when you install Acrobat Standard...

Appellate Courts Move to CM/ECF

Posted on January 02, 2008
According to the Federal Court Management Report for December 2007, the Eighth Circuit is leading as Courts of Appeal move to CM/ECF."The Eighth Circuit began accepting most attorney-filed documents using ECF in June 2007. In less than six months, the court registered over 5,000 attorneys and has had nearly 2,000 attorneys file documents in ECF...

PDF Issues

Posted on November 28, 2007
The court sees strange PDF files occasionally, most often letter size pages scanned to legal size format, making a long blank space at the foot of the page. Sometimes pages are scanned upside down, or sideways. A recent filing had an issue never seen before...

Keylogging Update

Posted on November 21, 2007
The threat of keylogging continues and CM/ECF users are not immune. According to a recent internal memo, over 100 PACER and several dozen CM/ECF filer accounts have been compromised by keyloggers this year nationwide. The keylogging is due to hidden software on the computer of the PACER or CM/ECF filer...

Computer Malfunctions

Posted on November 21, 2007
Recent documents filed in court reveal the unfortunate consequences of our reliance on computers.One filing detailed the loss of a document in process which necessitated the extension of a filing deadline. The filer fortunately had a recent backup so the problem was not as severe as it might have been...

AcrobatDigital Signatures and CM/ECF

Posted on October 29, 2007
Adobe Acrobat's handy and cool digital signature tool runs into trouble in CM/ECF. The Acrobat digital signature certifies that the docuent is authentic and unmodified since the time the signature is attached. But when CM/ECF attaches a header, the document is modified -- causing the signature to display an error code...

The New Look of CM/ECF 3.1

Posted on October 27, 2007
Among new features in CM/ECF version 3.1 is cascading menus. Like the Windows Start menu which branches into sub-menus, the CM/ECF 3.1 menus let you navigate further without moving through so many screens.

Faulty PDF Redacting Whacks FTC

Posted on August 15, 2007
Unfortunate FTC lawyers failed to use proper redacting techniques for a PDF filing in a court case (1:07-cv-01021-PLF - District of Columbia District Court) filed against Whole Foods proposed purchase of Wild Oats. As is the case with faulty PDF redactions, "the words looked redacted but were actually just electronically shaded black...

Failure to Whitelist Court NEF EMails Not Justified

Posted on July 30, 2007
A judge in Colorado has sanctioned lawyers for failure to appear at a settlement conference. Their excuse was that they did not receive notice through CM/ECF -- but that was because their IT staff failed to whitelist the email domain from which Notices of Electronic Filing are sent...

Steady Progress on E-filer Percentages

Posted on July 24, 2007
The district continues to make steady progress on reducing the number of non e-filers. Non e-filers require paper notice and impose signficant scanning duties on the court staff. E-filers complain that it is very inconvenient to have a case with a non e-filer because of paper service is required for that attorney...

New Tool Eases E-mail to Counsel

Posted on June 27, 2007
The District of Utah recently added a new tool to CM/ECF for users inside and outside court. It allows easy access to all email addresses in use in a case. The tool is found in UTILITIES, MAILINGS, MAILING INFO FOR A CASE. The screen that appears has all the notice information for a case...

Case Evaporates When E-Filer Fails to File Complaint

Posted on June 14, 2007
An attorney recently suffered the indignity of being the first to have a case number forfeited for failure to electronically submit a complaint. Current Utah CM/ECF procedures allow counsel to submit information in advance of a complaint filing so that a case number may be reserved and a case opened to receive an electronically filed complaint...

Non Delivery of NEF Requires Evidentiary Hearing

Posted on June 14, 2007
An article in the Computer Law Review and Technology Journal analyzes an Eighth Circuit decision holding that a lower court should have considered evidence to rebut the presumption of delivery for a Notice of Electronic Filing. The court held that affidavits presented raised issues of fact that entitled the appellant to an evidentiary hearing...

Notice of Conventional Filing Does Not "Reserve" Filing Date

Posted on March 05, 2007
Judge Kimball recently revealed that an attorney was using an e-filed Notice of Conventional Filing to "bookmark" a spot on the docket; stamping document caption pages at the all-night filing box outside the court; and then returning to the court days later to actually deposit the documents in the all-night filing box using the caption cover pages stamped days earlier...

Emailing is Not E-filing

Posted on February 15, 2007
On February 8th, the Tenth Circuit made it clear that emailing is not the same as efiling. The court dismissed the appeal in Le Williamson v. Deluxe Financial, Case No. 05-3312 even thought the Appellant attempted to email a notice of appeal to the clerk...

Data Mining Illustrated

Posted on February 13, 2007
As reported in http://www.bespacific.com, Justia has launched a powerful list of many recent court filings, including data mined from Utah's CM/ECF system. (click image to enlarge)Besides presenting lists of recent court filings, and direct links to PACER, Justia allows a user to search national court filings for parties or case types...

Sealed Civil Motion Docket Entries Will Appear on the Docket

Posted on February 08, 2007
The Civil Sealed Motion has been changed from a sealed ENTRY to a sealed DOCUMENT. This means that a Notice of Electronic Filing (NEF) will go out to all counsel, but the document itself will only be available to limited court staff. Since the Sealed Motion docket entry will appear on the docket, attorneys will now be able to e-file related documents (memorandums in opposition, replies, etc) and link them to the sealed motion...

Release 3.1 Set for Summer 2007

Posted on February 07, 2007
CM/ECF version 3.1, which will have many features of interest to chambers and lawyer users, is scheduled for release in June 2007. Among the new features in this version are hyperlinks between documents in a docket. and the ability to print multiple documents...

Percentage of Attorney E-Filings Plateaus

Posted on February 05, 2007
For the past nine months, attorney e-filings have been 30-35% of total court filings. It appears that the percentage of documents filed by attorneys has plateaued at that range. As mentioned previously in this blog, there are many items which cannot be filed by counsel, including notices, minute entries, writs, sealed papers, orders and judgments, and pro se and prisoner papers...

More E-Filer Registrations

Posted on February 05, 2007
At the end of 2006, the court removed all old email addresses for persons who are not registered e-filers. Many have registered as e-filers simply by virtue of that change, and in some cases, the court has taken a more active role. These file entries show one process that has been followed...

A New Look in CM/ECF Version 3.1

Posted on February 02, 2007
District CM/ECF Release 3.1 includes several user interface enhancements to improve common functions, including a new cascading menu system and streamlined case selection.While it is not as radical as Windows Vista, the cascading menus are a step forward for usability...

Audio Recordings to Be Posted on Trial Basis?

Posted on February 02, 2007
At the March 2007 Judicial Conference a proposal will be considered to endorse a pilot project for 6 to 12 months to allow digital audio recordings to be accessible through CM/ECF and to make those audio files available to the public through PACER. Whether audio recordings of court hearings will be available on PACER is therefore at least two years away.

Pay.gov Will Require Security Code

Posted on December 28, 2006
Beginning February 1, 2007, all district and bankruptcy court CM/ECF users that pay fees through the Pay.gov system will be required to complete the security code field to complete the transaction. The security enhancement was implemented after an erroneous credit card charge appeared on an individual?s statement...

District Upgrade To Version 3.0 To Start New Year

Posted on December 28, 2006
The District of Utah will upgrade to Version 3.0 of CM/ECF to start the new year. Users will see changes to Notices of Electronic Filing and to initial information screens. Watch the court's CM/ECF newsletter for more details.Because of the upgrade, CM/ECF will be unavailable Friday, December 29, 2006 from 5:00 a...

Acrobat 8 Includes Redacting and Bates Numbering

Posted on December 07, 2006
An article by Brett Burney on law.com discusses new features in Acrobat 8, including redaction and Bates numbers. Redaction was previously discussed in this blog.