Dockets, filings, and court records
Notice of Electronic Filing
A notice of electronic filing, or NEF, is the automatic email CM/ECF sends everyone in a case each time a document is filed.
The NEF states the case, the docket number of the new entry, the filing party, and the docket text, and it contains a hyperlink to the document. For attorneys and parties in the case, that link is the one free look: open it once and there is no PACER charge.
Miss the free look and the document costs the same as any other. Many firms have a rule that every NEF attachment gets saved to the file the day it arrives, precisely because the free window does not come back.
The NEF is also a timestamp with legal weight. It records the exact moment of filing, which settles arguments about whether something landed before a midnight deadline, and it is the document parties produce when a deadline dispute reaches the judge.
How it appears on a docket
Subject line: Activity in Case 1:23-cv-04517-JMF Rodriguez v. Acme Logistics, Inc. Order on Motion to Dismiss.
Related terms
- CM/ECF — CM/ECF is the federal courts' Case Management and Electronic Case Files system, the software each court uses to receive filings and maintain its docket.
- PACER — PACER is the federal judiciary's public access system for court records, charging ten cents a page with most single documents capped at thirty pages.
More on dockets, filings, and court records
See this term in a real case
Search federal court records and read the filings where notice of electronic filing actually shows up. New to federal dockets? Start with how to find a federal case.