The Filing Center is displayed to users just after logging in. It shows you the most important information that the system offers. With it, you can track the status of your filings, track proceedings you may be involved with and read messages you have received.

You can configure the Filing Center according to your own preferences so that you get the most useful information from it.

In its original form, the filing center appears similar to the example displayed in figure 1, below.

figure 1

The screen uses tabs to organize the content into manageable sections. Each tab is described in more detail below: Filings: The filings tab displays documents that either you or someone else has filed depending upon the optional display criteria that you have chosen. Proceedings: The proceedings tab displays the dockets that you have become involved with, either as a participant or by having initiated the docket. Messages: The messages tab displays any alerts or other notifications from the system that tell you about deadlines, new filings or other events.

The Filings Tab

Use the filings tab to view the three main categories of filings: Filings you made. This section lists the filings made directly by you. The most recent filings are displayed first. Filings made on your behalf by someone else. When you invite someone to file on your behalf, the documents that they file for you are displayed in this section. Filings served on you. These are the filings that someone else has made and named you as a recipient in the filing's certificate of service. At any time, you may use the preferences option to change the set of filings that the system displays in the filing center. The title field of each filing is hyper link that, when pressed, displays a wealth of detailed information about the filing in a new pop-up screen (you must have the browser option for blocking pop ups disabled in order for this feature to work correctly). From the detailed information page, you can access the filed document(s) in Portable Document Format (PDF) form. After you have worked with the system for a while, you will notice that the set of filings becomes larger than can be displayed on a single page. You use the left and right arrows to navigate back and forth between pages. Learn more.

The Proceedings Tab

The proceedings tab lists the dockets with which you have become involved. As with filings, the title of each proceeding is a hyper link that, when clicked, displays additional detail in its own pop-up screen. The Involvement column tells you why this proceeding has been included on the list.

The Messages Tab

The messages tab lists the alerts, warnings and reminders that have been generated by the system for your convenience. The subject of the message is a hyper link that displays the full content of the message in a new window. Normally, a message subject is bold until you view it for the first time, after which it reverts to normal non-bold text. Using the preferences screen, you can optionally have messages delivered to your email address.  Productivity Feature When new messages arrive, the messages tab displays New Messages in bold so that you can immediately see when you need to check your messages.