Electronic Filing & PACER Login

NextGen Note: 

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals sent the following notice to attorneys (June 2017): 

Notice of Important Changes to the Sixth Circuit's Electronic Filing System (CM/ECF) 

ACTION REQUIRED FOR CONTINUED E-FILING ACCESS

Effective Monday, August 14, 2017, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals will implement the Next Generation of CM/ECF ("NextGen").  All CM/ECF users who wish to e-file on or after August 14, 2017 must have an individual (not shared) upgraded PACER account.  Beginning August 14, 2017, you will not be able to e-file in the Sixth Circuit until you upgrade your account.

For more information please visit http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov and click "NextGen Information".  More information will become available on this page as the date approaches.

For some backgbround, NextGen offers attorneys the benefit of a centralized and single sign on, which is particularly useful to those attorneys that practice in more than one federal court.  This means that an attorney will have one login and password for both CM/ECF (e-filing) and PACER (public access) functions, and that one set of credentials will provide access to every NextGen Appellate, District and Bankruptcy Court they practice in.  To prepare for this transition, attorneys practicing in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals must seek an upgraded PACER account.  It is very likely that attorneys in a firm or practice area within a firm all currently share a PACER account.  The step to be taken now requires each attorney to seek their own upgraded PACER account.  This action must take place before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upgrades to NextGen.  If the step is not taken before the upgrade, the attorney will not be able to log in.

Only attorneys who e-file in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals need to make changes at this time.  More information regarding the transition to NextGen can be found here:  https://www.pacer.gov/nextgen/ 

Note that the steps required for the Sixth Circuit will not impact e-filing in the Western District of Michigan.  However, any PACER functions, such as running a query, running reports, viewing documents outside of the free look through the notice of electronic filing, WILL present a PACER login screen for attorneys who have upgraded their PACER account.  This is because once the change is made to upgrade the PACER account, the former PACER login/password credentials will no longer be valid.  If prompted for a PACER login in the Western District of Michigan, enter the new upgraded PACER credentials.

While NextGen is not yet available to all District Courts, plans to upgrade are beginning to be made.   Individual District and Bankruptcy Courts across the nation will gradually transition to NextGen over the next several years.  Sixth Circuit attorneys who take the steps to upgrade their PACER account will be one step ahead when this court transitions to NextGen.  Western District of Michigan registered attorneys do not need to make any PACER changes at this time, unless they e-file in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.  

NOTICE:  For a list of the Federal Courts' Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system downtimes, please see the PACER Downtime Notice.