You apply for pro hac vice through a motion in the case where you want to appear, supported by the documents the court names — S.D.N.Y., for example, asks for a notarized affidavit and a certificate of good standing — and by whatever fee that court sets.
Our research found no single national rule or form for the application: requirements appear to be set court by court, though our research could not confirm that from a primary source, so confirm the steps with the clerk where the case is pending.
Who files the pro hac vice motion
The pro hac vice application is the visiting lawyer’s — the term courts use when they let a lawyer who is not admitted to that court’s bar appear in a case there.
That overview covers what the term means and when a court uses it; this page is the paperwork: who files, what attaches, and what it costs.
In the procedure our research documented — S.D.N.Y.’s — the motion belongs to each attorney applicant and is filed in the case that needs the permission: a separate pro hac vice motion per attorney, filed electronically through CM/ECF, so a multi-lawyer team files one motion per lawyer, each with its own documents.
Permission also appears to run with the case rather than with the court’s bar — a different case calling for its own application — but our research could not confirm that from a primary source.
Whether the motion must come through a locally admitted lawyer is one more of those court-set details: local counsel surfaced in our research among the requirement types each state’s rules and each federal court’s local rules define, without a uniform rule our research could confirm.
Where a court requires these items, the motion generates coordination work for the firm — collecting the applicant’s admission and discipline history, ordering certificates, tracking the filing.
The checklist at the end of this page is written for the paralegals and legal assistants who do that work.
Documents you need for the application
S.D.N.Y.’s package shows the shape of an application: the motion itself, a notarized affidavit, and a certificate of good standing.
Treat that as one court’s list rather than a national standard — the documents your filing needs are whatever the motion court’s rules name.
The affidavit is where disclosures live.
S.D.N.Y.’s must disclose any felony conviction and any censure, suspension, disbarment or denial of admission.
Pull that history together before anyone drafts: start assembling it early.
The certificate of good standing is the document a court may ask for as evidence of your standing where you are admitted.
Our research did not establish which court or bar must issue it for a given motion, so ask the motion court what it will accept — and order it early.
Document lists are local
Pro hac vice fees by state
Start with the negative: our research found no single national pro hac vice fee to quote.
Fees appear to be set by each state’s rules and each federal court’s local rules — a structure our research could not confirm from a primary source — so the amount that matters is on the motion court’s own schedule.
“By state” is the right frame for the state courts: the state where the case sits is where its fee rules would live, though our research could not confirm that structure from a primary source.
Keep two boundaries around that.
Federal district courts set their own attorney admission rules by local rule, so a federal filing is a question for that district’s rules rather than a state’s.
And fees are only one of the requirement types our research flagged — alongside local counsel and annual caps — none of them confirmed from a primary source.
Two national figures will crowd any search for a pro hac vice fee, and neither is one.
The Judicial Conference fee schedule sets $199 for original admission to a federal district court’s bar — the standing route, effective December 1, 2023 — and $21 for a federal district court certificate of good standing.
For the motion fee itself, the current amount lives with the court: check its fee schedule or ask the clerk, and re-check close to filing.
No amount here is the motion fee
Pro hac vice in federal court
Federal district courts set their own attorney admission rules by local rule.
Whether pro hac vice follows the same local-rule structure is what our research saw — each district’s local rules carrying its requirements — but we could not confirm that from a primary source.
S.D.N.Y.’s electronic filing through CM/ECF, with a notarized affidavit and a certificate of good standing, is that court’s procedure; our research treats it as one court’s example, not a national rule.
The courts of appeals sit one level up.
Under FRAP 46, a lawyer is eligible for a court of appeals’ bar if of good moral and professional character and admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, a state’s highest court, another court of appeals, or a U.S. district court — and each circuit sets its admission fee by local rule or order.
That is standing admission, a place on a court’s regular bar; a pro hac vice motion, by contrast, appears to stay tied to one case — the matter-by-matter structure our research could not confirm from a primary source.
Practically, filing pro hac vice in a federal court is a local-rules exercise: pull the specific district’s local rules and its attorney-admission or pro hac vice page, and treat the clerk’s office as the authority for the current procedure.
A paralegal’s pro hac vice filing checklist
A pro hac vice motion generates coordination work — assembling disclosures, ordering the certificate, tracking the filing — and this is the checklist for it.
It assumes the court’s rules are already in hand — start there, because every item the court prescribes overrides a generic list like this one.
- Identify the exact court — state or federal, and which district — where the case is pending; our research found no single national rule, so work from that court’s own.
- Pull that court’s pro hac vice or attorney-admission rules and its fee schedule, and note the filing channel (at S.D.N.Y., electronic filing through CM/ECF).
- Confirm whether the rules require association with local counsel and, if so, who signs what.
- Collect the attorney’s admission and discipline history for the affidavit — S.D.N.Y. asks for any felony conviction and any censure, suspension, disbarment or denial of admission.
- Ask the motion court what it accepts as a certificate of good standing, and order it early.
- Calendar the filing date the team commits to and any hearing the motion supports.
- Confirm the current fee with the clerk and prepare payment per the court’s schedule.
- When more than one attorney is joining, prepare a separate motion for each attorney applicant — S.D.N.Y.’s rule; verify your court’s.
If this is the part of litigation you like, the litigation paralegal career guide maps the role end to end, and LawFirmHires lists open litigation paralegal jobs.
Career information for attorneys and legal staff, not legal advice. Pro hac vice requirements, documents and fees appear to be set court by court — confirm the current ones with the clerk of the court where your case is pending.