PDF for law firms

What the courts actually require

Size is capped and the cap is low. Federal CM/ECF allows 50 MB, some districts 100 MB, but many state systems stop at 5–25 MB.

Text must be searchable. A scanned PDF that never went through OCR is rejected outright — the clerk cannot index it.

Password protection is refused. An encrypted file will not be accepted, even if you supply the password.

Exhibits must be bookmarked, and the bookmarks are expected to mirror the table of contents. Paper size is US Letter; anything else needs its own motion.

The cost of getting this wrong is not a re-upload. It is a missed deadline, and in litigation a missed deadline is often not recoverable.

The tools for it

• OCR PDFMake a scanned PDF searchable.
• Compress PDFMake a heavy file small enough to email, without wrecking it.
• Unlock PDFRemove a password from a file you already have the password for.
• Resize PDFChange the page size — A4, Letter, or a margin you set yourself.
• Bates numberingStamp sequential legal numbering across a whole set of files.
• Redact PDFActually remove sensitive parts — not just draw a box over them.
• Check a redactionFind out whether the words you blacked out can still be pulled out of the file.
• Split by bookmarksBreak a document into its own chapters — the split points are already in the file.