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

What the court requires

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio 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. The CM/ECF system is configured for up to 200 MB, but the court's best-practices page states 35 MB; we use the published 35 MB.

“The size limitation for PDF documents has been increased from 15MB to 35MB.”

Common reasons filings are rejected

• A single PDF is over 35 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 N.D. Ohio's PDF rules

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

35 MB per PDF.

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

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. Ohio 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. Ohio 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.