Welcome to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts

District of Massachusetts - Document Filing System


View the CM/ECF FAQ's

NextGen is here. Click here for more information.

This is a restricted government website for official court business only. All activities of CM/ECF subscribers or users of this system for any purpose, and all access attempts, may be recorded and monitored by persons authorized by the federal judiciary for improper use, protection of system security, performance of maintenance and for appropriate management by the judiciary of its systems. By subscribing to CM/ECF, users expressly consent to system monitoring and to official access to data reviewed and created by them on the system. If evidence of unlawful activity is discovered, including unauthorized access attempts, it may be reported to law enforcement officials.

Attorney re-registration begins September 1, 2023. Click here for more information.

Please take notice that at a meeting held on December 13, 2022, the Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts approved a biennial re-registration for all members of the bar effective September 1, 2023. Beginning on that date, admitted attorneys will be required to re-register biennially to continue as active members of our bar. A fee of $50 will be charged at the time of re-registration. All federal government attorneys are exempt from re-registration. Active status in the District Court is required for practice in both the U.S. District Court and in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts.


NOTICE FOR PACER FEE-EXEMPT USERS
The court would like to remind fee-exempt PACER users of the terms of the exemption and of potential issues associated with a new software application called RECAP. It was designed by a group from Princeton University to enable the sharing of court documents on the Internet. Once a user loads RECAP, documents that he or she subsequently accesses via PACER are automatically sent to a public Internet repository. Other RECAP/PACER users are then able to see whether documents are available from the Internet repository. A fee exemption applies only for limited purposes. Any transfer of data obtained as the result of a fee exemption is prohibited unless expressly authorized by the court. Therefore, fee exempt PACER users must refrain from the use of RECAP. The prohibition on transfer of information received without fee is not intended to bar a quote or reference to information received as a result of a fee exemption in a scholarly or other similar work.

NOTICE FOR CM/ECF FILERS
The court would like to make CM/ECF filers aware of certain security concerns relating to a software application or .plug-in. called RECAP, which was designed by a group from Princeton University to enable the sharing of court documents on the Internet. Once a user loads RECAP, documents that he or she subsequently accesses via PACER are automatically sent to a public Internet repository. Other RECAP/PACER users are then able to see whether documents are available from the Internet repository. RECAP captures District and Bankruptcy Court documents, but has not yet incorporated Appellate Court functionality. At this time, RECAP does not appear to provide users with access to restricted or sealed documents. Please be aware that RECAP is "open-source" software, which can be freely obtained by anyone with Internet access and modified for benign or malicious purposes, such as facilitating unauthorized access to restricted or sealed documents. Accordingly, CM/ECF filers are reminded to be diligent about their computer security practices to ensure that documents are not inadvertently shared or compromised. The court and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts will continue to analyze the implications of RECAP or related-software and advise you of any ongoing or further concerns.


2April2024

Court Information