DocketPDF™

Best on a tablet or a computer

Everything below tells you what DocketPDF™ does. The program itself wants room: a page grid you drag across, an index panel beside it, a page editor with an alignment grid. Those need a tablet, laptop or desktop screen.

Read the whole pitch here, then open docketpdf.com on a larger screen when you are ready to work. The Android build is laid out for large tablets, and the Linux AppImage runs on any desktop.

About & changelog

Built by people who had to file it themselves.

DocketPDF™.net is operated by a team of pro se litigants who are frustrated at the arcane, hazardous complexity of the legal system — and at county court websites that still look like they were made in 2000, with text strewn all over the place.

The team’s goal is to make it easier for pro se litigants to understand how the courts work and how to prepare documents that clerks will accept, without giving legal advice.

It started as a single HTML file made to solve one evening’s problem: a motion with two exhibits, sixteen pages of scan, an index page whose numbers no longer matched, and a court that wanted bookmarks.

The commercial PDF suites could do most of it. They also wanted a per-seat licence, an installer, a cloud account and, in several cases, a copy of the documents on someone else’s server. None of that is reasonable for a person putting together one filing, and it is not much better for a solo practice.

So it was built the other way round: run in the browser, keep the documents where they are, and make the parts nobody enjoys — pagination, bookmarks, index page numbering, Bates stamping, recognition of a bad scan — happen from one list of exhibits rather than from a checklist and a lot of clicking.

The same membership now opens two more programs: DocketWord™, a pleading-aware word processor, and DocketEvidence™, for numbered exhibits and presenting them. Files move between them through My Docs.

It grew from there. The jurisdiction presets came from reading actual filing rules and writing down what each court asks for. The forms library came from getting tired of hunting for form numbers. The compliance check came from filing something wrong.

What DocketPDF™ is

A workshop for assembling filings. Pagination, bookmarks, index numbering, Bates stamps, recognition of a bad scan. It does not send anything to a court, does not know your deadlines, and has no opinion on whether your motion is any good. Not a law firm, not a filing service, not a substitute for advice.

Who makes it

A team of pro se litigants, not a sales department and not a firm. Support is read by people who have filed the same kinds of papers, which is both the good news and the reason a reply can take a business day.

Three homes for DocketPDF™

The web app, with nothing to install. The Android tablet build, laid out for large tablets with stylus signatures and recognition on the device. The Linux AppImage, a single executable with nothing sent anywhere. DocketWord™ and DocketEvidence™ are separate programs on the same account.

Every release since the first one

Thirty-seven releases between 11 October 2025 and 26 August 2026. Dates are the day the build went out, not the day the work started.

major a new way of working minor new capability patch fixes only
Aug 2026
10.0major

DocketGenius™.org

  • A public-interest site at docketgenius.org. One membership: the same six-digit code signs you in there and here.
  • DocketPDF™, DocketWord™ and DocketEvidence™ run on that site in its own chrome. Files, join and billing stay on this one. The domain never changes what a plan can read.
  • The genie-lamp search and the /genius library share the same knowledge base. Files, join and billing stay on this site.
9.6minor

Pay on this site

  • Checkout stays on docketpdf.net. Square vaults the card; this site stores a token, last four digits, expiry and billing address, never the full number or the CVC.
  • A promotional code sits on the card step with the other totals and is applied to the subscription when the card is saved.
  • Paid plans subscribe through Square without leaving this site.
9.52major

DocketWord™

  • A pleading-aware word processor at /word, on the same membership as DocketPDF™. Work stays in the browser. A Word file in My Docs opens straight into it.
  • Pleading paper with line numbers pinned to where the text actually rendered, so they do not drift by page 20. Twenty-eight lines, restarting each page, with the single-spacing exceptions the rule allows.
  • A caption builder: court, parties, case number, department, judge, and an In Pro Per or attorney block. Change the case number once and it updates in every document in the matter.
  • Jurisdiction profiles for California statewide civil (CRC 2.100–2.119), a generic federal district court, and a generic federal appellate court. The screen reports that a document matches the profile as of a date. It never says “compliant.”
  • Tables of authorities generated from the brief. Federal and state reporters, statutes, rules of court, short forms and Id. chains are recognised as you write.
  • Live page and word limits that exclude captions, tables, signature blocks and exhibits the way the rule excludes them, plus Make It Fit: proposed margin, leading and type-size changes clamped to the profile’s legal minimums.
  • Document skeletons with a collapsible note on each section — complaint, answer, notice of motion, memorandum, declaration, proof of service, opposition, reply, notice of appeal — written as information about structure, not advice about what to argue.
  • Images snap to the same baseline grid the line numbers use. Drop a folder of screenshots and choose stack, a grid, one per page or a contact sheet. A warning appears if an image will print below 200 DPI at the size you placed it.
  • Open and save Word, OpenDocument, RTF, HTML, PDF, plain text, Markdown and a native container. An import report lists what changed rather than silently converting it.
  • Track changes, threaded comments, a legal dictionary, and a hand-off to DocketPDF™ when the brief needs Bates numbers, bookmarks or a court preset.
9.51patch

My Docs, from the keyboard

  • Delete, cut, copy and paste from the keyboard. Open with… on the rail. The Delete key no longer ignores a selected document because a checkbox had focus.
9.5major

DocketEvidence™

  • A dedicated program at /evidence for turning a pile of photos, videos, recordings and PDFs into numbered exhibits a clerk and a judge can follow. Files stay in My Docs. The same six-digit code opens it.
  • One matter, one numbering scheme: numbers, letters, or a party prefix. Reordering keeps the numbers; the Master Index is built from that list rather than typed by hand.
  • Each exhibit is fingerprinted (SHA-256) when it arrives. Certificates of authenticity export as PDF for the files that have to travel with a declaration.
  • Video studio: grab a frame or cut a clip without overwriting the source. Audio studio: mark an excerpt; transcription is available when the site has it switched on, metered by the length of the recording.
  • Photo collage compiles stills to a PDF and files it in My Docs as the exhibit. A program states its own size ceiling, so a video is not refused as if it were a 40 MB PDF. The file’s own created and modified dates are kept.
  • Folders and tags are the same tree My Docs draws. A case folder here is a top-level folder there. Mark exhibits primary or impeachment, pending a file, or at hearing. Batch-change folder, tags, use or party across a selection.
  • AutoPlace: carry a prompt to the assistant you already use, attach a Master Index you have already filed, and paste the answer back. Every exhibit in it is laid out as a labelled placeholder.
  • Present mode opens a clean exhibit window meant for a hearing share, including LA Court Connect, so you are not scrolling filenames on a shared screen.
  • Export the Master Index as an editable Word table; binder cover, tab sheets and dividers as PDF; certificates of authenticity as PDF. Preview before writing. Save Word, OpenDocument, PDF or plain text, and a copy is filed in My Docs.
  • Send the binder to DocketPDF™ when the set needs Bates numbers, bookmarks or a court preset. Redaction and trims are recorded as alterations rather than hidden.
9.4minor

Fail-closed uploads and hashed licences

  • Licence keys are hashed. Uploads that cannot be inspected are refused.
  • Affiliate cookies are signed, so a referral cannot be swapped in transit.
Jul 2026
9.3minor

Licence tiers, a download log, and praise

  • Licence tiers: each build is sold in tiers with their own prices and their own feature grid, separate from the monthly packages. The build asks for its tier’s feature list at activation and switches itself on accordingly.
  • A downloads log recording every fetch and refusal with the licence key, the full address and the guessed platform.
  • Testimonials and press coverage are shown as a two-row ticker, replacing the placeholder blocks that had been on the homepage since March.
  • The ticket panel now sits under the FAQ, and refunds are in the Terms of Service.
9.2.1patch
  • A referral who joined and immediately upgraded was credited once instead of twice.
  • The advert Continue button could be enabled early by changing the system clock. Elapsed time is now checked server-side.
9.2minor

Four plans, and a free tier that earns its exports

  • Free, DocketBasic at $9.99, DocketPro at $19.99 and Firm at $49.99. The free plan is the whole program except the export.
  • An affiliates scheme with no payouts and no commission: watch one advert, invite up to ten people, and exporting opens when one of them joins. A free referral earns 48 hours and three exports; a paying referral earns a month of DocketBasic.
  • The export gate is enforced on the server, so it holds whatever the browser is told.
Jun 2026
9.1.1patch
  • Activation consumed a second machine slot when the same machine re-activated after an update.
  • Keys typed with the letter O instead of a zero were rejected; the alphabet now excludes both, along with 1 and I.
9.1minor

The Android and Linux builds, and licence keys

  • DocketPDF™ for Android tablets: the same program laid out for a ten-inch screen and a stylus, installed from an APK. Not sold through Google Play, so no store account is involved.
  • DocketPDF™ for Linux: a single AppImage, no installer and no root, with recognition running on your own machine so a scanned exhibit never crosses the network.
  • Licence keys that activate either build on two machines, issued to the account at purchase and never lost.
9.0.1patch
  • A revoked share still opened for a recipient whose tab had been left open.
  • Passcode entry was case-sensitive without saying so.
9.0major

Sharing, and signatures from other people

  • Share a finished PDF with an expiry and a passcode. Recipients sign in to open it, so there is a name against every view rather than a link that circulates.
  • Request an e-signature: the recipient signs in the browser, and the signed copy comes back to the owner.
  • A full audit trail per share — opened, downloaded, signed, by whom, from which address and when.
  • The whole program moved behind the member area, with the standalone build embedded as-is so the interface is identical to the desktop one.
May 2026
8.9.2patch
  • Crawlers and archivers blocked properly: robots.txt, server rules and page-level directives, with the API path exempted so the desktop builds can still check in.
  • Full IP addresses are logged for sign-ins and downloads, and the Privacy Policy now says so plainly instead of in general terms.
8.9.1patch
  • Reconnecting a provider created a duplicate index entry for every file.
  • S3 buckets with dots in the name failed to sign requests.
8.9minor

Your own cloud storage

  • Connect Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box or an S3 bucket. Files stay in your account; only an index lives here.
  • Open straight from the connected provider and save the export back to it, so the document never needs to sit on this server at all.
Apr 2026
8.8.2patch
  • Trash could be emptied while an export was still reading a file from it.
  • Folder names accepted characters that broke the storage path.
8.8.1patch
  • Codes expired in ten minutes, which is not long enough when mail is slow. Now thirty.
  • A second code request invalidated the first, so whichever arrived was wrong. Both now work.
8.8minor

Accounts without passwords

  • Sign in with an email address and a six-digit code. No password is stored, because a password we never hold cannot be leaked.
  • A member area: My PDFs with folders, starring and a trash, and an account page for the plan and the profile.
  • Allowance counters per plan, shown to the member rather than discovered at the moment of failure.
Mar 2026
8.7.2patch
  • A pair of fixes that did not change how documents are assembled.
8.7.1patch
  • A page was counted twice when a visitor used the back button.
8.7minor

The website

  • A real site instead of a single file: home, features, jurisdictions, forms, pricing, security, accessibility and the legal pages.
  • Four themes, all green-led, switchable without touching a template.
Feb 2026
8.6.1patch
  • Recognition ran in the interface language rather than the document language, which is the single most common cause of nonsense output.
  • Forms library search ignored hyphenated form numbers.
8.6minor

Text recognition and the forms library

  • OCR of scanned pages, adding an invisible text layer without altering how the page looks. A bad result costs nothing but pages from the allowance.
  • A searchable library of court and tribunal forms across 27 jurisdictions, each with a link out to the issuing court so the form number can be checked against the source.
  • Page templates and exhibit dividers, generated to the preset rather than pasted from a previous filing.
8.5.2patch
  • Preset changes made after pages were added did not re-run the compliance check.
  • Print dialog offered the browser page size instead of the preset page size.
Jan 2026
8.5.1patch
  • Two presets had the index and the cover sheet the wrong way round. Reported by a filer in Sacramento; corrected the same day.
  • Sectioned numbering skipped the first page of section A.
8.5minor

Twenty jurisdiction presets

  • Twenty bundle presets covering US federal and state courts, England and Wales, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada — each one written from the published rules rather than guessed.
  • A preset sets page size, margins, index placement, bookmark depth, stamp position and sectioned numbering in one choice.
  • Sectioned numbering, where pages restart inside each lettered section, which several courts require and no general PDF tool does.
8.4.1patch
  • A flattened export re-rasterised pages that needed no change, tripling file size. Now only touched pages are rewritten.
  • Signature placement drifted by a few points on rotated pages.
Dec 2025
8.4minor

Redaction and signatures

  • Draw a redaction box, and choose at export whether to keep layers or flatten. Only flattening destroys the text underneath, and the interface now says so where you make the choice rather than in a help page.
  • Signatures drawn with a mouse, trackpad or stylus, or imported from a scan, then placed and scaled on any page.
  • An erase tool for the cases where a redaction box is the wrong shape entirely.
8.3.1patch
  • Bates numbers collided with existing page numbers on documents already stamped by a court portal. Position presets added.
  • Compliance check reported a false margin failure on landscape exhibits.
8.3minor

Bates numbering and the compliance check

  • Bates stamping with a prefix, a start number, a position and a page range. Applied at export, so the grid stays readable while you work.
  • A compliance check that reads the selected preset and lists what is missing: index, bookmarks, page size, margins, stamp position.
  • The check never blocks an export. It is a reading of a rule, not the rule.
Nov 2025
8.2.1patch
  • Index links pointed one page short when a preset placed the index after a cover sheet.
  • Bookmark titles containing an ampersand broke the outline in Acrobat.
8.2minor

The index page and PDF bookmarks

  • Build a hyperlinked index from the exhibit list. Page numbers are computed after the index itself is inserted, which is the part that goes wrong by hand.
  • PDF bookmarks generated from the same list, so the outline pane matches the index page.
  • Reordering an exhibit renumbers the index and rewrites the links. No manual pass.
8.1.1patch
  • Extract produced an empty file when the selection was made in reverse order.
  • Keyboard focus no longer jumps to the top of the grid after a delete.
Oct 2025
8.1minor

Splitting, extracting and a real page grid

  • Split a document at any page boundary, and extract a selection to its own PDF without touching the original.
  • Thumbnail size control, so a 400-page set is navigable rather than a wall.
  • Multi-select in the grid: shift for a range, cmd or ctrl for individual pages.
8.0.1patch
  • Rotation was lost on export when a page had been moved after rotating. Fixed.
  • Large imports no longer freeze the tab while thumbnails render.
8.0major

The first build that worked

  • A single HTML file that could merge PDFs, drag pages into order and export the result. Made to get one motion filed.
  • Page grid with drag-to-reorder, rotate and delete. Everything held in browser memory; nothing uploaded anywhere.
  • Ten import formats accepted, because the scanner produced two of them and the client sent a third.