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U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaPlease take a moment to read this month's important news, reminders, and filing tips for ECF...
TRAINING ON OPENING NEW CIVIL CASES ELECTRONICALLY:
Beginning mid-October, training classes on how to open new civil cases electronically in ECF will be available to attorneys and their staff at the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse. Those firms wishing to file new civil cases electronically should schedule training using the ECF Training Class Calendar on our website: http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/dcd/ecf-information. Eligible attorneys must be active members of the bar of our court and be able to pay the case-opening filing fee with a credit or debit card via pay.gov. Once trained, filers will be certified to open and file new civil cases electronically. All support staff who may be involved with ECF filing are encouraged to attend training.
ECF VERSION 5.0 COMING SOON!:
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will upgrade to version 5.0 of ECF before the end of this year. While the majority of the new features of this release will only affect court staff users, there is one change that will require attention by public users: more secure passwords. Upon first logging in after the upgrade, all attorneys and pro se filers with access to ECF will be required to change their password to conform with new password security requirements (at least eight characters, both upper and lower case, and at least one digit or special character). An email alert will be sent to all ECF users prior to the upgrade.
RETROACTIVE APPLICATION OF CRACK COCKAINE AMENDMENT:
On November 1, 2011, the retroactive application of crack cocaine amendment to federal sentencing guidelines implementing the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 will take effect. Any motions related to this retroactive amendment should be filed as a Motion to Reduce Sentence re Crack Cocaine Offense - 18:3582. This event can be accessed via the CRIMINAL docke!
ting men
u in ECF, under Motions. Please be sure to use this specific event when filing motions related to this retroactive sentencing amendment, or the motion will be entered in error and you will be required to refile it using the correct event.
NEW MOTION RELIEFS ADDED!:
Based on the number of motions that are filed regarding scheduling orders and the modification thereof, three new reliefs (events) have been added to the civil Motions menu in ECF for your filing convenience. They are: Briefing Schedule, Scheduling Order, and Modify. Please be sure to use these specific reliefs when filing the applicable motion rather than using generic options like Motion for Order or Miscellaneous Relief.
HOW DO I FILE A......SURREPLY?:
Leave of court is required before filing a Surreply. To accurately move for leave, file a Motion for Leave to File with the proposed Surreply attached to the motion as an exhibit. If the Motion for Leave to File is granted by the court, a member of the Clerk's Office staff will refile the Surreply as a new and separate docket entry.
For more ECF filing pointers and to view previous e-newsletter topics, visit our website at: http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/dcd/ECFCR
Topics for September submitted by: Joe Burgess and Nicole Wilkens
Written by: Nicole Wilkens