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Civil Case Opening

Effective February 2, 2015, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois requires attorneys to open civil cases online via the Case Management Electronic Case Filing (CM/ECF) System. If you are a registered attorney in our district with a valid user name and password for CM/ECF, you are able to open a civil case, file the case initiating document(s), and pay the filing fee with a credit card via Pay.gov. Registered CM/ECF users are reminded of their obligation to keep their personal contact account information, especially their e-mail addresses, current.

Step-by-step instruction documents are listed under Training Resources.

For assistance with using the Electronic Case Filing system, email questions to ecfhelp@ilsd.uscourts.gov or contact the ECF help desk at (866) 867-3169 (East St. Louis) or (866) 222-2104 (Benton). Clerk's office personnel are available from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays.