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.