eFiling in Texas Supreme or Appellate Courts? Don't Scan, Convert!
Posted by Mark Schwartz on Wed, Apr 20, 2011 @ 12:59 PM
We've learned that quite a few attorneys are sending scanned documents to Texas trial courts when eFiling on Texas court cases. However, scanned documents submitted to the Texas appellate courts are often rejected because they do not always meet the data standards required by the appellate court's case management system. When that happens, the courts are requesting that the efilers re-send those documents in a "non-scanned" format.
Photo Credit: jmtimages
Blake Hawthorne, Clerk of the Court, Supreme Court of Texas, along with Don Cruse, an attorney in Austin, has posted a document, "Appellate Briefs of the Future," on the Supreme Court's website that describes best practices in appellate brief preparation. It includes many helpful hints including how to convert and bookmark documents you wish to eFile. Bookmarking, for example, allows an attorney, legal assistant or legal secretary to insert a virtual exhibit tab, which many electronic filing courts require. To access their guide, click here.
Additionally, Adobe has created a great video that will also assist you with creating electronic briefs. Click here to view it.
We also wanted to mention that scanning documents, as opposed to converting them, is costly in terms of upload and storage space. Scanned documents can take up to 50% more space than those that are converted!
We hope you find this post helpful as you continue to embrace eFiling, whether that be in Texas Supreme Court, Orange County (CA) Superior Court, or other eFiling courts across the country.
Let us and your colleagues know what you think by commenting below!