PDF requirements for e-filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

What the court requires

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit accepts PDFs of up to 50 MB each in CM/ECF. A larger document must be split into consecutive parts of 50 MB or less and filed as the main document followed by attachments, in order. All files in one filing together may not exceed 250 MB. Appendices and records are the documents most often over the limit; split them into volumes and check the circuit's rules on how volumes are numbered.

“File Size: Documents filed with the court electronically are limited to 50 megabytes per uploaded file.”

The 4th Circuit hears appeals from federal courts in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia.

Common reasons filings are rejected

• A single PDF is over 50 MB, usually a scanned exhibit or record.
• Pages are legal size (8½ × 14 in) or A4 instead of letter.
• The PDF is password-protected or has security restrictions, so CM/ECF can't open it.
• The PDF is password-protected or has security restrictions, so the court's system can't open it.

Questions about the 4th Circuit's PDF rules

What is the maximum PDF file size for the 4th Circuit?

50 MB per PDF. All files in one filing together may not exceed 250 MB.

What should I do if my PDF is too large for the 4th Circuit?

Split it into consecutive parts that are each under 50 MB, never cutting a page in half, and file the first part as the main document and the rest as attachments named in order (for example "Exhibit A, Part 2 of 3"). For scanned documents, re-scanning in black and white at 300 dpi often shrinks the file enough to avoid splitting. Docket Prime can split the file for you in your browser.

Does the 4th Circuit require text-searchable PDFs?

The published rules we found don't require it. Documents saved directly from a word processor are searchable and much smaller than scans; for paper documents, OCR adds searchable text.

What page size does the 4th Circuit accept?

Letter size (8.5 × 11 inches) is expected. Legal-size or A4 pages may print badly or be refused, so resize them to letter.