I. General Electronic Filing Requirements

All parties appearing before the Court must comply with the applicable Rules and Statutes, including Fed. R. Bankr. P. 5005, Local Bankruptcy Rule 5005-1, and all applicable Court orders.

A.    Electronic Filing

“Electronic filing” means uploading a pleading or document from the user’s computer using the Court’s Electronic Document Submission System (“EDSS” or “System”) to file that pleading or document in the Court’s case file. Unless otherwise provided in these Administrative Procedures (“Procedures”), the Court’s Local Bankruptcy Rules ("L.B.R."), or Court order, sending a document or pleading to the Court via e-mail does not constitute electronic filing.

B.    Official Case File

Except as otherwise provided by these Procedures or other applicable laws or rules, the Clerk’s Office will not maintain a paper file in any case assigned to the Case Management/Electronic Case File System. The official court record is the CM/ECF System.
 

II. Using EDSS

A.    An individual or entity using EDSS must provide a valid e-mail address.

B.    If your documents are successfully uploaded, the Clerk’s Office will send an email confirming the submission was received. However, a document submitted using EDSS is not officially filed until the Clerk’s office has sent an additional e-mail confirming that the uploaded documents have been filed/docketed. Your document is considered to be filed on the date indicated on this latter confirmation e-mail.

C.    An individual or entity using EDSS consents to have the Clerk’s office send notices, orders, papers, or other documents to the e-mail address provided when using EDSS.
 

III. Electronic Filing and Service of Documents

A.    Document Legibility

Documents must be verified for legibility before being submitted via EDSS.

B.    Timeliness of Electronic Filings

Filing a document electronically does not change the filing deadline for that document. To be timely, documents must be filed before midnight Eastern Standard Time. Remember that submitting a document via EDSS does not mean that it has been filed. Documents are not considered filed until you receive an email confirming that the documents were filed/docketed. This could be one or more days after you submit the documents via EDSS.

C.    Service

All parties appearing before the Court must comply with applicable rules of service (See Fed. R. Bankr. P. 7004, 7005; Fed. R. Civ. P. 4, 5; Local Bankrupcty Rules 5005-1, 9013-2). Filing a document using EDSS does not constitute service of that document.

D.    Document Retention Periods

A person submitting a document through EDSS must maintain the original signed document for a period of seven years. The original must be made available upon request of the Court.

E.    Signatures

A person submitting a document through EDSS must maintain the original signed document for a period of seven years. The original must be made available upon request of the Court.

F.    Fees Payable to the Clerk's Office

Certain filings require the payment of fees. An individual submitting a document using EDSS must pay all required fees. Fees must be paid in person or through the mail. The Clerk’s Office does not accept cash, personal checks from debtors, or third-party checks. Debtors can pay fees on-line using a debit card or can submit a cashier's check or money order. Cashier’s checks and money orders must be made payable to the "Clerk, United States Court". The Clerk's office cannot accept personal checks from debtors or third-party checks. The failure to timely submit any required fee may result in the denial of any motion or other relief requested and/or dismissal of the case.

G.    Orders and Notices Issued by the Court

The Clerk’s Office will electronically file all signed orders and all notices. Except for debtors participating in Debtor Electronic Bankruptcy Noticing (DeBN), notice to debtors generally will be given in paper format.

H.    Creditor Matrix

If filing a petition, the creditor matrix can be completed and submitted using the Court’s creditor matrix tool. If not using the Court’s tool, the creditor matrix must comply with the formatting requirements set forth here.

I.    File/Document Size Limitations

Only PDF files can be submitted via EDSS. PDFs that cannot be opened or are illegible or file types other than PDFs will be rejected and will not be filed with the court.

J.    Correcting Documents Filed in Error

If a document is incorrectly filed in a case, the individual must amend or withdraw the document filed in error. No changes to a document can be made once the transaction has been accepted by the EDSS.

K.    Technical Failures

Technical failures are governed by L.B.R. 5005-3.

L.    Privacy Protection for Filings with the Court

All Filing Users must comply with the privacy protection requirements of Fed. R. Bankr. P. 9037 and L.B.R. 9037-1.