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CM/ECF upgrades -

By Michael Smith

It may not be quite as cool as the new iPhone, but it does have some neat new bells and whistles.  This weekend, May 17 and 18, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas will upgrade to the latest version of CM/ECF version 3.2.1. CM/ECF will be unavailable for new filings on these dates, however it will allow query and report access. CM/ECF will be on-line no later than 8:00 a.m., May 19. You may access our web site at the link provided below to check the availability of CM/ECF at any time.
A document that outlines the new features of 3.2.1, CM/ECF 3.2.1 - New Features for Attorneys, is on the district's website (and clickable from this post).   It's worth looking at as some of the new features in CM/ECF are going to make the system much more user-friendly.  They include

• Cascading menus (hover and they pop up)

• Case number searching improvements (it provides lists of cases matching what you've entered so far)
• The "search" command is now available from the main menu, and will allow you to search for events with the search term in them (I can already tell this will speed up the process of selected the event you're wanting from the pick list)
• full path name for document to be uploaded will be shown (to help avoiding uploading the wrong files)
• NEF "one free look" at document narrowed to only parties.  Nonparties getting NEFs will have to pay per-page fees. 
• PACER billing revisions
• Reports - several very useful changes here.  Users can now choose whether to include docket text in calendar events reports, run civil cases reports by jurisdiction code, criminal cases by citation code, and docket reports as pdf (paginated) or html (unpaginated).  You can also now view, print, or download multiple docket entries, i.e. you can now download or view an entire docket entry, including attachments with one mouse click (assuming the documents when combined are not above a certain threshold size - what that is I'm not sure, but I suspect it'll be increasing periodically).

Good stuff - I look forward to giving it a spin when it's up and running.  (Yes, I know that's a pretty pathetic thing to look forward to, but, hey, I gotta be me).

 

Our website is www.txed.uscourts.gov

Full post as published by Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice on May 14, 2008 (boomark / email).