11th Circuit ECF Now Mandatory, But So Is Killing Trees

April 1 is a popular day for electronic filing switch overs. The Eleventh Circuit’s transition to ECF, as of this week, is complete. As announced in February, ECF filing is required for all attorneys, though be sure to read the rules carefully because there are still many documents that need to be filed conventionally as well as electronically. As the Court explains in its ECF Guide [.pdf]:

Use of the ECF system does not modify the requirements of the circuit rules
that counsel must provide to the Court the required number of paper copies
of a brief, a petition for rehearing, or a petition for rehearing en banc,
specified in the circuit rules.

More ominously, if your case is part Electronic Records on Appeal Program, you must continue to file expanded record excerpts in conformance with the applicable General Orders and the Electronic Records on Appeal Program Components. As many appellate practitioners have pointed out, the expanded record excerpts are quite a paper burden, which makes the idea of this being an “electronic” record somewhat of a joke. But that’s an issue for another post. In the meantime, be sure to read the rules very carefully, because while attorneys now must file via ECF, you will still need to produce lots of paper copies throughout the course of an appeal in the Eleventh Circuit.

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