PDF requirements for e-filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

What the court requires

The 35 MB limit applies to each component of a filing, not the whole filing: a motion and each of its exhibits can each be up to 35 MB. The court encourages combining exhibits into one attachment when the combination stays under 35 MB, labeled for example "Exhibits A through D". Larger exhibits can be split and labeled "Exhibit A, Part 1", "Exhibit A, Part 2".

Common reasons filings are rejected

• One exhibit is over 35 MB.
• Split exhibit parts are not labeled clearly (for example "Exhibit A, Part 1").
• Combined exhibits are not labeled with the range they contain.
• The PDF is password-protected or has security restrictions, so the court's system can't open it.

Questions about the N.D. Illinois's PDF rules

What is the maximum PDF file size for the N.D. Illinois?

35 MB per PDF.

What should I do if my PDF is too large for the N.D. Illinois?

Split it into consecutive parts that are each under 35 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 N.D. Illinois 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 N.D. Illinois 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.