Appellate Rule 27 has been amended to permit the entire district court file to be scanned and submitted to the Supreme Court in CD format as the appellate record. Previously, counsel had to designate the documents to be included. However, each county has to agree to make this option available to counsel and only Ada, Kootenai, Fremont and Jerome have done so. The number of counties opting in will likely grow and the Supreme Court website will keep an up to date list.
The rule can be found at http://www.isc.idaho.gov/appell%20rule%2027.pdf
I participated in the trial of this method of preparing the record and liked it. Currently, appellate counsel needs to compare the Register of Actions to the file ordered by trial counsel and then try to determine whether everything needed is in the record. When the record needs to be augmented, the appeal can be delayed. It'll be better for appellate counsel and the Court to simply get the complete record to begin with and the CD format makes that possible. I can't speak for other appellate lawyers, but I encourage trial lawyers in the four participating counties to use this option. If others disagree, especially SAPD lawyers, please post a comment.
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I would still think that the trial judge's notes would be sealed and not part of the record?
ReplyDeleteI am taking a look at judicial committees (I am a non lawyer). Can you tell me if this rule change was changed through any particular judicial committee or not and who was part of the process and/or how was this decided? Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI think this will be a great program. When the entire district court file is part of the record from the beginning there will be no need to track down missing items and no need to delay appeals with motions to augment. I think this program will have appeals process faster and will result in less work for the attorneys and the courts. Also, it will save money because all the copying and personnel time will be reduced. The only possible downside I can see is that attorneys will have to invest in good software to annotate the record if they don't want to print the record, but I think that law offices are headed in that direction already.
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