U.S. District Court

Posted Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Posted Thursday, August 20, 2026

Posted Tuesday, August 11, 2026

The following summary describes procedures regarding filing of, service of, and access to sealed and other restricted documents, for example those filed ex parte in CM/ECF.

• Electronic Filing of Sealed and Other Restricted Documents: Sealed documents are filed in CM/ECF as set forth in the CM/ECF User Manual.
• Service of Sealed and Otherwise Restricted Documents Filed in CM/ECF: Parties must serve sealed and otherwise restricted documents outside of CM/ECF as provided by Fed. R. Civ. P. 5 and L.R. 5-2(e) (see Practice Tip). The Court serves sealed orders, notices, and other Court-generated documents via U.S. Mail.
• Access to Restricted Documents in CM/ECF: Parties are not able to view sealed and otherwise restricted documents in CM/ECF or PACER.
• Requesting Copies of Sealed or Restricted Documents: A party with permission to access a sealed or otherwise restricted document may contact the Clerk’s Office to request a copy. After confirming that the requesting party has permission to access the document, the Clerk’s Office will provide a paper copy of the document. Requests for paper copies of sealed documents are subject to the current copy free rate as set by the District Court Fee Schedule.
• Highly Sensitive Documents (HSD): Documents defined as HSD are subject to the procedures set forth by Standing Order 2024-2, In re Highly Sensitive Documents.
• Updating Mailing Address in CM/ECF: Registered Users are responsible for updating their contact information, including e-mail, telephone, and mailing address in CM/ECF (LR 83-10).  Registered Users are encouraged to verify or update their addresses to make sure they receive documents mailed by the Court. Instructions can be found in Section 14 of the CM/ECF User Manual.

Members of the public are being targeted by phone calls, text messages, and e-mails that threaten prosecution or fines for failing to respond to a jury summons or subpoena or failing to appear for a proceeding. Some texts or calls spoof official names and phone numbers for court personnel, as well as the official Court seal. These communications are fraudulent and are not connected with the federal courts. 

Recipients of such communications are pressured to click hyperlinks; provide confidential data such as banking information; or to provide payment in the form of gift cards, credit cards, or similar to cover an alleged fine or remove an alleged warrant. Recipients are threatened with fines and jail time if they do not comply.

Members of the public are urged to learn to recognize and avoid such scams by watching for their hallmarks: demands for urgent action, requests for personal and/or financial information, or offers that are too good to be true. Never click on any link in any e-mail or text message without first verifying its authenticity.

Most contact between a District of Oregon court staff member and prospective juror or other member of the public will be through the U.S. mail or by e-mail, and any telephone contact by real court officials will not include requests for sensitive information. Federal officials do not demand payment of money in lieu of being arrested. Federal courts will also not serve a summons or warrant or notify you of a summons or warrant by e-mail, phone, or fax. If in doubt regarding a communication purporting to be from the District of Oregon, contact us for accurate information.

It is a crime for anyone to falsely represent a federal court official. The federal judiciary takes such offenses seriously. If you believe that you have been the victim of fraud or have received a scam phone call, text, phishing e-mail, or fax, contact your local FBI office and the Federal Trade Commission.

When you provide a check as payment, you authorize the Court either to use information from your check to make a one-time electronic fund transfer from your account or to process the payment as a check transaction.  For inquiries, please call the Clerk's Office at 503-326-8000.

Privacy Act – A Privacy Act Statement required by 5 U.S.C. § 552a(e)(3) that states our authority for soliciting and collecting the information from your check and explaining the purposes and routine uses which will be made of your check information, is available from the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, U.S. Department of the Treasury, and may be obtained through the mail by calling 1-866-945-7920 (toll free). Furnishing the check information is voluntary, but a decision not to do so will require you to make payment by some other method.

The District of Oregon has received information that fake Notices of Electronic Filing (NEF) are circulating nationwide, including those that appear to originate with Oregon CM/ECF. If the recipient responds to the message, they are sent a follow-up email containing a link to access a document that leads the recipient to a malicious website.

The court would like to remind its users and the public that any e-mail that is not expected, encourages urgent action, or includes an attachment should be treated with caution, including e-mails purporting to be from the court. If in doubt, do not click any links or open any attachments, and verify the authenticity against the docket in PACER. The court does not send notifications to parties and attorneys that filings are due.

In addition, an official NEF from the District of Oregon CM/ECF system will always have the following characteristics:

• The subject line will be "Activity in Case [case number] [case title] [filing]"
• The message will be from
• Any links within will direct to ecf.ord.uscourts.gov
• The message will not be directly addressed to the recipient (recipients of NEFs are bcc'd)
• NEFs do not issue to individuals who are not already users of Oregon CM/ECF
• The NEF will not have any attachments
• The NEF will not include instructions for next steps, e.g. the filing of a response
• The NEF will include a list of all attorneys and parties to whom the NEF was also sent

Registered users of Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) should be aware of the potential to inadvertently share docket and/or hearing information when using third-party services or software. Sharing your PACER account credentials with a third-party service provider or designating that provider as a secondary recipient of a Notice of Electronic Filing or Notice of Docket Activity (NEF) can potentially allow that third party access to restricted information. You are urged to use caution in your computer security practices to ensure that restricted information to which you have access is not disclosed.

A fake website is currently impersonating www.cvb.uscourts.gov and may attempt to collect personal or financial information fraudulently. The only official website for paying a U.S. District Court Violation Notice is www.cvb.uscourts.gov. If you are paying online, please verify the web address carefully and report suspicious activity to the Central Violations Bureau (CVB) at 800-827-2982 or . Alternatively, you may pay a ticket over the phone by calling the CVB at the same number.