Technical Requirements (File Format and Size Limitations)

Documents filed electronically must be submitted in PDF. Except as provided elsewhere in this L.R. 5- 4, the document filed with the Court must be created using word-processing software, then published to PDF from the original word-processing file (to permit the electronic version of the document to be searched). PDF IMAGES CREATED BY SCANNING PAPER DOCUMENTS ARE PROHIBITED, 12/1/2025 Chapter I - 10 LOCAL RULES - CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA except that exhibits submitted as attachments to a document and records in bankruptcy appeals, habeas corpus proceedings, and administrative review cases such as Social Security appeals, ERISA, and IDEA cases may be scanned and attached, in text- searchable PDF form, if the filer does not possess a word- processing-file version of the attachment. Individual PDF files shall not exceed 35 MB in size, and shall contain no more than one document or portion of one document per file.

PDF files that exceed 35 MB must be divided into sub-volumes. Where scanned signature pages are authorized under L.R. 5- 4.3.4(a), only the signature pages may be scanned; the remainder of the document must be generated by publishing to PDF from the original word-processing file.