2012 CM/ECF eNotices

 

MARCH 2012

AMENDMENTS TO THE SCHEDULE OF FEES: At a meeting held on March 6, 2012, the Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts approved amendments, effective immediately, to the court’s Schedule of Fees as follows:

The re-registration for attorneys admitted prior to January 1, 2001 for a fee of $25.00 has been eliminated. Any attorney in inactive status with the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts must meet the requirements for admission and pay the corresponding fee as would any attorney seeking admission.

The fee for filing a motion for leave to appear and practice in a particular case (pro hac vice) in the District of Massachusetts has been increased to $100.00.

The Amended Fee Schedule is posted on the court’s website under “General Information” at: http://www.mad.uscourts.gov/general/fees-payments.htm

PACER FEES: The Judicial Conference of the United States, at its September 2011 session, amended the Electronic Public Access Fee Schedule for the appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts, the United States Court of Federal Claims, and the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. The schedule was amended to increase fees from $0.08 to $0.10 per page for electronic public access to court records through the PACER service. The effective date for the PACER fee increase is April 1, 2012. CM/ECF software changes were made so PACER users are charged $0.10 per page, with a cap of $3.00 for those reports that have a 30-page billing cap.

NEW MENU ITEMS ADDED TO COINCIDE WITH RECENT LOCAL RULE AMENDMENTS:  The ECF system has been modified to include new menu items (events) to coincide with the recent revisions to Local Rule 116:

Letter requesting additional discovery

Letter requesting discovery after waiving automatic discovery

Notice of declination to disclose

Response to letter requesting additional discovery

Response to letter requesting discovery after waiving automatic discovery

Waiver of request for disclosure

These may all be found on the Criminal Discovery Documents Menu.

FEDERAL BAR ASSOCIATION:  The Federal  Bar Association is hosting its annual Federal Judicial Reception on April 3, 2012.  This year’s honoree is Judge Michael A. Ponsor.  Attached is a copy of the announcement from the FBA.

JANUARY 2012

ATTORNEY HANDBOOK:  the Attorney Handbook has been updated and is available on the court website at http://www.mad.uscourts.gov/attorneys/pdf/Attorney_Guide.pdf. The handbook is intended to provide the public and the bar with information needed to conduct business with the court.

CHANGES TO LOCAL RULES: the court’s Local Rules have been amended.

The Administrative Office of the United States Courts has issued a revised version of national form JS-44, the civil cover sheet. It is required to be filed with each new civil action, and our Local Rule 40.1 reflects those changes to the nature of suit codes. The nature of suit codes no longer on the JS-44 are no longer available in the current version of CM/ECF (Release 5.1.1). The new civil cover sheet with the updated nature of suit codes is available on the court’s website at http://www.mad.uscourts.gov/resources/pdf/JS044_000.pdf.

The clerk’s office has modified the local category sheet (also required to be filed with each new civil action) in order to conform to the amendments to Local Rule 40.1.  A copy of that document may be found at http://www.mad.uscourts.gov/resources/pdf/CategoryForm4-4-11.pdf.

The amended rules are:

Effective January 3, 2012:

Local Rule 16.2 Exemptions from Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b);
Local Rule 40.1 Assignment of Cases;

Effective February 1, 2012:

Local Rule 83.5.3 Practice by Persons not Members of the Bar
Local Rule 112.1 Motion Practice
Local Rule 112.2 Excludable Delay Pursuant to the Speedy Trial Act
Local Rule 112.4 Corporate Disclosure Statement
Local Rule 116.1 Discovery in Criminal Cases
Local Rule 116.2 Disclosure of Exculpatory Evidence
Local Rule 116.3 Discovery Motion Practice
Local Rule 116.4 Special Procedure for Audio and Video Recordings
Local Rule 116.5 Status Conferences and Status Report Procedure
Local Rule 116.6 Declination of Disclosure and Protective Orders
Local Rule 116.9 Preservation of Notes
Local Rule 117.1 Pretrial Conferences
New Local Rule 117.2 Subpoenas in Indigent Criminal Cases; and
New Local Rule 116.10 Table of Contents for Voluminous Discovery

The text of the amended rules may be found on the court’s website at http://www.mad.uscourts.gov/general/announcements.htm.  A full set of the local rules, including those recently amended will be posted on February 1, 2012 (see: http://www.mad.uscourts.gov/general/rules-home.htm).

DEMONSTRATION OF THE JURY EVIDENCE RECORDING SYSTEM: The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts is using a Jury Evidence Recording System (JERS) that allows evidence admitted during trial to be viewed electronically by jurors in their deliberation room upon the conclusion of the trial. JERS provides easy access to exhibits during the deliberations through the use of a touch screen monitor in the jury room.

The Honorable George A. O’Toole and staff from the clerk’s office, in association with the Federal Bar Association, will offer a demonstration of this new system on Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 4:00PM in courtroom 2 of the Moakley Courthouse in Boston.

Participants will have the opportunity to learn about the new system:  how to prepare evidence for admission before and during trial; and how jurors will access the system to review exhibits during deliberations.

To register to attend the JERS demonstration, please RSVP to: RSVP@MAD.USCOURTS.GOV.

TRANSCRIPT RATES: The court has entered a general order (General Order 11-06), effective January 1, 2012 that sets forth the current maximum transcript fee rates.  (See:  http://www.mad.uscourts.gov/general/pdf/120111GenOrd11-06TrnscrptRatesElecSign.pdf)