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

What the court requires

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Illinois accepts PDFs of up to 35 MB each in CM/ECF. A larger document must be split into consecutive parts of 35 MB or less and filed as the main document followed by attachments, in order. Pages should be 8.5 × 11 inches: the Bankruptcy Noticing Center prints and mails many filings, and larger pages can be cut off.

Common reasons filings are rejected

• A single PDF is over 35 MB, usually a scanned exhibit or record.
• Schedules or claims attachments have pages larger than letter size.
• 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 Bankr. S.D. Illinois's PDF rules

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

35 MB per PDF.

What should I do if my PDF is too large for the Bankr. S.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 Bankr. S.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 Bankr. S.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.