When you are required by statute, federal rule, or local rule to serve a document other than original process on a party who is not a registered CM/ECF user, you must serve it in accordance with Fed. R. Civ. P. 5 and electronically file a Certificate of Service with the Clerk’s Office. However, a Certificate of Service is not required when the document is served electronically through CM/ECF as to all parties. See Local Rule 102.1.c.
Any party to a case subject to electronic filing who is represented by counsel is expected to have at least one attorney who is a registered user of CM/ECF. In cases subject to electronic filing, the Clerk’s Office will not mail paper copies of documents to attorneys.
If a party is represented by at least one attorney who is a registered user of CM/ECF, electronic service on that attorney constitutes service on the party. As long as a document is electronically served on at least one attorney for a party, service need not be made on any other attorney for that party even if the other attorney is not a registered user of CM/ECF.
Pro se parties must be served by paper as they usually are not registered users of CM/ECF.
The Certificate of Service may be filed as a part of the document or as a separate document.
Before converting your document to PDF and filing it electronically, check to see which parties will not be electronically noticed.
If you will not know whether a party will be electronically noticed until after you file your document and see the Notice of Electronic Filing (NEF), you can create and file a separate notice of service. A sample Certificate of Service is available here.