This entry is to describe how I managed to
prepare Record on Appeal for North Carolina Court of Appeals as Pro Se. I saw
instructions, guides, but I had to come up with some practical solutions to
complete it. Here I want to share my approach.
One huge help is the electronic site for North
Carolina Court of Appeals which provides pretty much all the documents for each
case except for submitted transcripts. But those are not a problem because
court reporter has to do it by herself/himself anyway and then upload it so it
does not go into the record.
To find out about some examples I first went
to https://scholar.google.com/,
selected [x] Case law, then [x] North Carolina, and in my situation put in the
search box: "passport divorce." The first case that came up was:
TABAKOVA v. TEODORESCU NC: Court of Appeals, 2010. I opened it and at the top
was the case number: No. COA09-424. That was all I needed to locate documents
in the COA (Court of Appeals) file because I just replaced the [case.number] in
the link below:
https://www.ncappellatecourts.org/search-results.php?sDocketSearch=[case.number]&exact=1
With 09-424
It was one of the examples I used but I had to
review many others to complete my record.
Links which were very helpful
●
Official Rules of Appellate
Procedure: http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/public/html/pdf/therules.pdf
○
It is like a legal document and I
actually had to cite specific rules from it.
●
A Style Manual for the North
Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure https://www.ncbar.org/media/558476/appellatestylemanual.pdf
○
It is like a commentary to
official rules with great examples and templates
GENERAL STRATEGY:
There are many ways to prepare Proposed Record
on Appeal. For example, someone can just to do it all on paper by collecting
individual documents from the file, prepare additional required documents in
word processor and print it, then put page numbers manually on top of each page and
scan the whole thing.
I have chosen to do it by working with PDF
documents. Thus, my general strategy was to prepare all the documents I needed
as PDF and then merge them using free and portable software "PDFTK Builder
Portable" available here: https://portableapps.com/apps. To add page numbers, and sometimes for merging too, I paid for an online software: https://www.ilovepdf.com/.
Again, there is other software out there that will do the job but those two
were enough for me. And of course, I also used MS Word and exported the
documents as PDF. Most recent MS Word versions can export DOCX documents into
PDF documents with simple "Save As" selection.
========= STEPS ===========
=== 1. Scan all the documents & merge as
PDF
I went
to the courthouse and paid for copies of all the documents I did not have. Then
I used my Brother All-in-One Copier, Printer, Scanner to scan them into
individual PDF files. Here I had to be careful about using correct DPI resolution
and compression settings because initially the files were very large. But once I had the the correct settings then I
ended up with bunch of files named YYYYMMDD.[description].pdf
At the
end of the process I merged all the PDF documents in one file, with them being
in chronological order - that is why I put dates in file name. So I created part.03.documents.ver01.pdf. I
ended up adding documents later so I had many versions (... ver02.pdf, ver03.pdf, etc.). Also, I later had to
add page numbers at the top, starting from page 2 in my case. But if my
Statement page (below) was longer than a single page then I would have to
start from page 3, 4, 5, etc.
NOTE 1: I had to make sure that all court
documents are with file stamp, not drafts. Thus, I had to go to courthouse for
some documents that I already had but my copies were not the filed versions.
NOTE 2: Sometimes I ended up scanning too many
documents for one PDF file. Then I had to use PDFTK Builder Portable to split
them and then put them back together as individual files. Yes, it is very tedious
but I see no way around it so I just do it one at at time.
NOTE 3: I had to make sure that all the
documents that COA requires are included in the proposed record. They are outlined in Rule
(9)(a)(1) on page 22 of the rules: http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/public/html/pdf/therules.pdf
●
.......
●
c. a copy of the summons with
return, or of other papers showing jurisdiction of the trial court over persons
or property, or a statement showing same;
●
d. copies of the pleadings, and of
any pretrial order on which the case or any part thereof was tried;
●
e. so much of the litigation, set
out in the form provided in Rule 9(c)(1), as is necessary for an understanding
of all issues presented on appeal, or a statement specifying that the verbatim
transcript of proceedings is being filed with the record pursuant to Rule
9(c)(2), or designating portions of the transcript to be so filed;
●
f. where an issue presented on appeal
relates to the giving or omission of instructions to the jury, a transcript of
the entire charge given; and identification of the omitted instruction by
setting out the requested instruction or its substance in the record on appeal
immediately following the instruction given;
●
g. copies of the issues submitted
and the verdict, or of the trial court’s findings of fact and conclusions of
law;
●
h. a copy of the judgment, order,
or other determination from which appeal is taken;
●
i. a copy of the notice of appeal,
of all orders establishing time limits relative to the perfecting of the
appeal, of any order finding a party to the appeal to be a civil pauper, and of
any agreement, notice of approval, or order settling the record on appeal and
settling the verbatim transcript of proceedings if one is filed pursuant to
Rule 9(c)(2) and (3);
●
j. copies of all other papers
filed and statements of all other proceedings had in the trial court which are
necessary to an understanding of all issues presented on appeal unless they
appear in the verbatim transcript of proceedings which is being filed with the
record pursuant to Rule 9(c)(2);
●
.....
=== 2. Prepare the index file
Then I
prepared part.01.index.ver01.doc,
a Word file which lists all the documents I wanted to put in the record as well
as other documents that must be included. Each document needs to have a proper
name and must have correct date of filing. I left the pages number with "x" at this
point, to fill in later. If you would like to use my Word document then you would have to change
everything that I put in Bold font and make sure everything is in normal font.
=== 3. Prepare statement file
Then I
prepared part.02.statement.pages.ver01.doc
which is basically a very brief a narrative what order is being appealed. The
important thing to remember is that it does not have a page number on the first
page, and if there are more pages then the count does start from 2. I saved it
as part.02.statement.pages.ver01.pdf.
Rule
(9)(a)(1)(b) says what it should include:
●
b. a statement identifying the
judge from whose judgment or order appeal is taken, the session at which the
judgment or order was rendered, or if rendered out of session, the time and place
of rendition, and the party appealing;
=== 4. Adding page numbers to documents file
When I knew how long is my part.02.statement.pages.ver01.doc
(from #3 above) then I added page numbers to the document file part.03.documents.ver01.pdf (from
#1 above). I used http://www.ilovepdf.com/
and made sure I start from page 2, the numbers are at the top of the page at
the center, and pages are in the format -- [page number] --. I paid for a
monthly subscription, which ended up being under $10 and well worth the
expense. I created part.03.documents.ver02.pdf
=== 5. Issues on appeal file
Then I
prepared part.04.issues.on.appeal.ver01.doc
which follows the Rules of Appellate Procedure guidelines and narratives which
were applicable to my case. The important thing was to make sure that page
numbers (which are at the top of the page) start not from 1, but start after last page number in file part.03.documents.ver02.pdf. Later I would have to add page
numbers to the index file (part.01.index.ver01.doc)
but I did not do it at that time. But I certainly had to make sure that the dates
are correct when appropriate. I saved it as part.04.issues.on.appeal.ver01.pdf.
=== 6. Certification file
Then I
prepared part.05.certification.ver01.doc.
I did it separately because I changed dates couple of times. And that was one
page which I printed separately, signed, scanned, and added at the end. Again,
I double-checked for page number at the top, continuing from part.04.issues.on.appeal.ver01.doc and make sure the date of
service is correct.
=== 7. Adding page numbers to index file and
certification page
Once I
had all the components I went back to part.01.index.ver01.doc
and created part.01.index.ver02.doc
with correct page numbers for each indexed item. I saved it as part.01.index.ver02.pdf
I also
edited part.05.certification.ver01.doc
to reflect current date and created part.05.certification.ver02.doc.
I printed it, signed it, scanned it, and named the scanned file part.05.certification.ver02.signed.pdf
=== 8. Merge everything together
And
finally I used PDFTK Builder Portable to merge all my pdf documents, print
them, mailed them to the other party. In practice I put the envelope with originally
signed Certification page but added it to my PDF version of the record as well.
●
part.01.index.ver02.pdf
●
part.02.statement.pages.ver01.pdf
●
part.03.documents.ver02.pdf
●
part.04.issues.on.appeal.ver01.pdf
●
part.05.certification.ver02.signed.pdf
Here my first, of many drafts that followed: https://grodnerdivorce.blogspot.com/2017/04/official-document-proposed-record-on.html
I hope it helps and if you have any questions or comments to improve this page do not hesitate to contact grodnerdivorce at gmail dot com.
======== SUPPLEMENT =====
I needed to create a Supplement because there were documents which I wanted in the Record but the opposing counsel did not, and there were documents which he wanted in but I objected. In that case all those documents ended up in the Supplement. There were also documents that had to be excluded altogether because they were never part of the file (see ORDER OF JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT OF RECORD ON APPEAL).
To create the Supplement I created an index file, pages with numbers, and certification page so in a way I went through the steps above but only for part.01, part.03, and part.05. I had to make sure to start page numbers after the last page number of the Record. Here is the relevant quote from the Rule 11(c)
- The Rule 11(c) supplement to the printed record on appeal shall contain an index of the contents of the supplement, which shall appear as the first page thereof. The Rule 11(c) supplement shall be paginated as required by Rule 9(b)(4) and the contents should be arranged, so far as practicable, in the order in which they occurred or were filed in the trial tribunal. If a party does not agree to the inclusion or specification of an exhibit or transcript in the printed record, the printed record shall include a statement that such items are separately filed along with the supplement.
Also, below I attach the files that I worked with and I merged them into a Supplement:
I uploaded the Supplement via electronic site but I also printed and sent 3 copies to the Court of Appeals as well as one copy to the opposing counsel.- part.06.index.supplement.doc - Index file for Supplement; notice that it has its own page count but the first page that includes actual documents must start where the last page of the Record ended. In my case Record ended on page 300 so I had to start the Supplement from page 301. The reason why it is different from example above (where part.05.certification.ver01.doc ends on page 319) is because after ORDER OF JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT OF RECORD ON APPEAL I needed to move some pages to Supplement and delete others.
- part.07.with.page.numbers.pdf - These are documents created from original pdf files in two steps like part.03 above: first full file without numbers and then file with numbers. Note that I prepared this file first and then I completed part.06.index.supplement.doc and then added part.08.certification.supplement.ver.02.pdf which was basically signed and scanned version of the file part.08.certification.supplement.doc below.
- part.08.certification.supplement.doc - Certification page which I printed, signed, scanned, and included at the end as part.08.certification.supplement.ver.02.pdf.
======== Useful links
The Record on Appeal by Jon Hunt, Assistant Appellate Defender http://www.ncids.org/Defender%20Training/2014BootCamp/RecordOnAppeal.pdf
