Consistent across case types
Unusually among California courts, this one publishes the same figures across its case types: no single document above 25 MB, and no group of documents above 50 MB in one submission. That consistency is convenient — the number does not change depending on what is being filed.
Both ceilings are enforced independently. Documents that individually satisfy the 25 MB limit can still exceed 50 MB when submitted together.
California sets no statewide figure. Other Superior Courts differ — Orange County allows 35 MB per document and 60 MB per transaction, and courts on eFileCA commonly default to 25 MB within a 35 MB envelope.
Why a filing gets this large
Twenty-five megabytes is a demanding ceiling for scanned material. Around fifty pages captured at 300 DPI in color will reach it, and exhibits assembled from records obtained elsewhere are typically scanned at whatever the original source used.
Color depth and resolution are where the size comes from. Ordinary black-on-white paper captured in 24-bit color stores three bytes per pixel to describe a page with essentially two tones; capture above roughly 300 DPI records detail no screen will show.
Compression applies the same reduction to a file you already have, resampling the embedded images while leaving genuine text objects in the document untouched.
If the file is an exhibit
Lossy compression alters a file. Every byte of the output differs from the input, even where the page looks identical on screen, and that can matter if the document's authenticity is ever contested. ShrinkWrit shows the SHA-256 hash of the file you started with and the file it produced, so the change is documented rather than invisible.
The lossless mode strips metadata and repacks the file without touching a single pixel or sample. It saves less, and on a heavily scanned document it may not reach the limit at all — but when it does, the image data is bit-for-bit what it was. Your original is never modified either way; the output is always a new file.
Common questions
- What are San Bernardino's e-filing size limits?
- 25 MB for a single document and 50 MB for a group of documents in one submission.
- Do the limits change for family law or probate?
- The court publishes the same figures across civil, family law, probate, small claims and landlord-tenant filings.
- Are these the same as other California courts?
- No. California courts set their own limits and they vary — Orange County uses 35 MB and 60 MB, for instance.
- Does compressing a scanned exhibit make it illegible?
- Not usually. Most scanned court documents are captured well above the resolution needed to read them. ShrinkWrit reduces resolution in steps and stops at the first setting that meets the target, and reports the resulting fidelity so you can judge it before filing.
The 25 MB figure on this page was last checked against the court’s own notice on Jul 2026. Limits change without much announcement — confirm it at the source before you file.