SDNY and EDNY Filing Formatting Rules: Margins, Font Size, Captions, and SDNY ECF PDFs

If you are trying to format a document for filing in the Southern or Eastern District of New York, the answer is not in one place.

The basic typography rules are in the Joint Local Civil Rules for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. Caption requirements come from the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Privacy redactions come from Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2. If you are filing electronically in SDNY, the PDF and exhibit rules are in the SDNY Electronic Case Filing Rules.

That is why this is harder to find than it should be. There is no single rule called "how to format a filing." You have to stitch the requirements together.

This article summarizes the primary-source rules. It does not cover judge-specific individual practices, standing orders, or EDNY-specific ECF procedures.

Quick Checklist

For most SDNY/EDNY civil filings, and for SDNY ECF filings where noted, start here:

The Basic Formatting Rule

The core formatting rule is Local Civil Rule 7.1, titled "Form and Length of Briefs, Motions, and Other Papers."

Subsection 7.1(b) applies broadly. It says the "typeface, margins, and spacing of all documents presented for filing" must meet three requirements:

all text must be 12-point type or larger, except for text in footnotes which may be 10-point type

all documents must have at least one-inch margins on all sides

all text must be double-spaced, except for headings, text in footnotes, or block quotations, which may be single-spaced

That is the baseline. Do not use 11-point body text. Do not shrink the margins to fit more words on the page. Do not single-space the body of a brief unless the text falls into one of the listed exceptions.

The exceptions matter. Headings, footnotes, and block quotes may be single-spaced. Ordinary argument text may not.

Motion Papers

Local Civil Rule 7.1(a) also identifies the papers required for motions:

• A notice of motion, or an order to show cause signed by the court
• A memorandum of law
• Supporting affidavits and exhibits containing the factual information and record material needed to decide the motion
• Opposition and reply papers that follow the same memorandum and support-paper structure

The memorandum of law must set out the cases and authorities relied on and should be divided under appropriate headings into the issues to be decided.

That matters for formatting because a motion filing is usually not one document. The notice of motion, memorandum of law, attorney declaration or affidavit, exhibits, and proposed order may each have their own document structure.

Word Limits for Briefs

Local Civil Rule 7.1(c) sets word limits for computer-prepared briefs:

For pro se parties filing handwritten or typewritten briefs, the limits are 25 pages for opening and opposition briefs and 10 pages for reply briefs.

The rule also says what does and does not count.

Excluded from the word or page limit:

• Caption
• Index
• Table of contents
• Table of authorities
• Signature blocks
• Required certificates

Included in the limit:

• Footnotes
• Endnotes

If a brief is filed by an attorney or prepared with a computer, it must include a certificate stating that the document complies with the word-count limit. The certificate must state the number of words in the document, and the person preparing it may rely on the word count from the word-processing program.

Motions for Reconsideration

Motions for reconsideration have their own shorter limits under Local Civil Rule 6.3.

For computer-prepared briefs:

The same exclusion structure applies: caption, index, table of contents, table of authorities, signature blocks, and required certificates do not count, but footnotes and endnotes do.

Captions

The caption rule is not in Local Civil Rule 7.1. It is in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 10.

Rule 10(a) says every pleading must have a caption with:

• The court's name
• A title
• A file number
• A Rule 7(a) designation

The complaint must name all parties in the title. Later pleadings may name the first party on each side and then refer generally to the other parties.

That is the required content. The federal rule does not prescribe one exact visual layout for the caption block. Many firms use familiar federal pleading caption conventions: court name at the top, parties in a left-side caption block, case number and document title on the right, sometimes with horizontal lines or other firm-specific styling. But the primary rule is about what the caption must contain, not a single mandatory graphic design.

Pleading Paragraphs

FRCP 10(b) also controls the structure of pleadings.

Claims or defenses must be stated in numbered paragraphs, and each paragraph should be limited as far as practicable to a single set of circumstances. If clarity would be improved, separate claims based on separate transactions or occurrences, and separate defenses other than denials, should be stated in separate counts or defenses.

This is why answers and complaints are not just prose documents. They need reliable numbered paragraph structure. If the numbering breaks, the pleading becomes harder to answer, cite, and review.

Exhibits to Pleadings

FRCP 10(c) says a statement in a pleading may be adopted by reference elsewhere in the same pleading or in another pleading or motion. It also says that a written instrument attached as an exhibit to a pleading is part of the pleading for all purposes.

That is different from the ECF mechanics for uploading exhibits. Rule 10(c) tells you the legal effect of an exhibit attached to a pleading. The ECF rules tell you how to file exhibits electronically.

SDNY Electronic Filing: PDF-A, Searchability, and File Size

For SDNY electronic filing, the relevant source is the SDNY Electronic Case Filing Rules, effective February 2, 2026.

SDNY ECF Rule 23.2 requires electronically filed documents to be in PDF-A format.

SDNY ECF Rule 23.3 requires documents filed by parties on ECF to be text searchable. Exhibits are different: filing exhibits in text-searchable format is encouraged, but not required.

SDNY ECF Rule 23.4 sets the file-size limit: no single PDF may be larger than 15.0 MB. If a filing is too large, the ECF system will not accept it.

SDNY ECF Rule 23.5 recommends converting directly from a word processor to PDF-A where possible. If that is not possible, it suggests scanning at low resolution, black and white, 200 dpi, and splitting oversized files into separately labeled parts.

SDNY Exhibits and Attachments

SDNY ECF Rule 13.3 says exhibits must always be filed as attachments to a document. Exhibits should not be scanned into the same PDF file as the main document.

SDNY ECF Rule 5.1 adds that each exhibit must be filed as a separately numbered attachment and clearly titled with an objective description, so the nature and relevance of the exhibit can be understood without opening the file.

So instead of uploading one combined PDF containing the declaration and all exhibits, the SDNY ECF rules point toward a structure like this:

SDNY ECF Rule 5.2 also says filing users must submit only the relevant excerpts of referenced documents as exhibits or attachments. Excerpted material must be clearly and prominently identified as excerpted.

Signature Blocks

For SDNY electronic filing, ECF Rule 8.2 says electronically filed documents must include a signature block and must set forth the filer's name, address, telephone number, and email address.

In the absence of a scanned signature image, the filing user's typed name must be preceded by S/ in the space where the signature would otherwise appear.

SDNY ECF Rule 13.15 says the filing attorney's ECF login and password serve as an electronic signature. The attorney may sign with S/ Name or with a digital image of the signature. The attorney's name and contact information, including email address, must appear in the signature block below the signature line.

Signatures for other people, such as clients or witnesses, must be scanned to capture the ink signature.

Privacy Redactions

Privacy redactions come from Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2.

Unless the court orders otherwise, a filing that contains certain personal data identifiers may include only:

Rule 5.2 has exemptions and separate provisions for sealed filings, reference lists, and unredacted copies filed under seal. But as a formatting and filing checklist item, the main point is this: do not put full personal identifiers into a public filing unless a rule or court order permits it.

Why This Is Easy to Get Wrong

Formatting rules look simple when reduced to a checklist. But in a real filing, they are spread across the document.

The caption is a layout problem. Numbered paragraphs are a Word-structure problem. The table of authorities is a field-code problem. The signature block is a table or alignment problem. Exhibits are an ECF packaging problem. PDF-A and text searchability are export problems. Redactions are a review problem.

That is why AI-drafted text is not the same thing as a court-ready filing. A chatbot can draft paragraphs, but it does not reliably produce a Word document with the right caption, spacing, numbering, signature block, PDF settings, exhibit structure, and filing-ready attachments.

This is the gap DocketDrafter's AI pleading formatter is built around. You can keep drafting in Claude, then render the final draft into a properly formatted Word or PDF document using a court-specific or firm-specific template.

The rules are mechanical. The hard part is making sure the mechanics happen the same way every time.