Electronic Briefs

Given at the State Bar College "Summer School" in Galveston (July 2012)

Transcript

1. Electronic Briefs State Bar College Summer School 2012 Don Cruse Law Office of Don Cruse (512) 853-9100 http://www.scotxblog.com
2. 2001 2004 2010 2004 2008 2007 online docket and casemail only in argued cases requested with merits briefs mandatory with every petition & brief transcripts webcasts downloadable audio How Texas got here...
3. At the End of 2010... Fifth Circuit (federal) Supreme Court of Texas mandatory CM/ECF asked for courtesy PDF copies of all filings Intermediate Texas appellate courts some requested courtesy PDF copies
4. March 2011 Texas Supreme Court adopts permissive e-filing -and- issues model local rules for other courts of appeals
5. September 2011 Texas Supreme Court makes e-filing mandatory
6. Required Today: Required Soon: Permissive Today: First & Fourteenth (Houston), Third (Austin), Fifth (Dallas) Seventh (Amarillo) Second (Ft. Worth), Fourth (San Antonio), Sixth (Texarkana), Eleventh (Eastland) In 2012, nine of fourteen appellate courts use the model e-filing rules
7. A majority of civil appeals now fall under mandatory e-filing 22% 23% 55% Mandatory Permissive No E-Filing
8. What Courts Do With Your E-Briefs
9. 10-0001.mfr.pdf Judges: In some courts, this is all they will ever see.
10. • In many courts, no paper is required • In the First, Second, and Fifth Courts, there are at least three paper copies • In the Sixth Court, only one is required • In the Texas Supreme Court, it varies by the type of filing — two for petitions, four for merits briefs, none for rehearing motions # of paper copies vs. # of Justices on a panel
11. 2011 Survey: On what screens were court personnel reading electronic briefs? 2% 10% 17% 71% Big desktop Small desktop Laptop Tablet/iPad Smartphone Kindle/e-reader At the Office 5% 7% 11% 50% 13% 14% At Home / Traveling
13. Don’t even know what software the judges and staff are using. Acrobat iOS apps for PDFs Other PDF Tools Acrobat Pro Desktop web browser (IE) Mobile web browser
14. iAnnotate PDF (iPad App)
15. iAnnotate PDF (iPad App)
16. Goodreader (iPad App)
17. Goodreader (iPad App)
18. Clerks: Will be posting briefs online through TAMES
20. Must be redacted • Names of minor children at time the lawsuit was filed (use “A.B.”) • Social security numbers • Drivers license or passport number (or any similar government-issued ID number) • Financial account numbers (bank accounts, credit cards, or similar) • Dates of birth • Home addresses
21. Be careful with redaction • Best option: Think about this early on, and don’t put these specific details in your brief • For exhibits: Either learn to use redaction tools like Acrobat Pro really well -- or -- use the “analog hole” of redacting on paper, scanning, and then doing OCR • If a detail is truly critical to making an argument, then use a “reference list” as provided in the Supreme Court’s order
22. Making E-Briefs: The Basics
23. Use Native PDFs and Use OCR on Anything You Have To Scan
24. Native PDF vs. Scanned If in doubt, zoom in and take a look. Taken from two PDF briefs filed in the same case.
25. But it can’t be used for word searches without extra work. A scanned document can on your original screen.
26. Tip: Watch out for the Clerk’s Record If you’re attaching pages to your brief, you have to handle the OCR to make them word-searchable. I’ve filed documents in trial courts that were true e-briefs, which showed up in the clerk’s record as scans.
27. Include Required Exhibits in the Same PDF File
28. ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT WAL-MART STORES TEXAS LLC'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT ON THIS 28'h day of AUGUS T 2008, came to be heard Defendant Wa l -Mar t Stores Texas, LLC's Mot ion for Summary Judgment_ The Cour t , af ter reviewing the pleadings on fi le and consider ing the arguments of counse l , is of the opinion that Defendant Wa l -Mar t Stores Texas, LLC's Mot ion for Summary Judgment shal l be GRANTED_ IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED , ADJUDGED AND DECREED , that Defendant , WAL-MART STORES TEXAS, LLC's Mot ion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED . SIGNED this day of CAUSE NO . 07-380-D AUG 2 8 2008 E: l #600-109/Alv ino Chr rcan vs. t i 'Af1 P1eadings1 MSJ Order Page ] a 9 EXHIBIT ALVINO CHACON , § IN THE DISTRICT COURT Plaint i f f § vs . § 105TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT WAL-MART STORES, INC ., § ANDREWS DISTRIBUTING § COMPANY, LTD ., AND ROBERT § SANCHEZ § Defendants § KLEBERG COUNTY, TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS CORPUS CHRISTI - EDINBURG NUMBER 13-08-00501-CV ALVINO CHACON , Appe l lant , v. ANDREWS DISTRIBUTING COMPANY LTD. AND ROBERT SANCHEZ , Appe l l ees . NUMBER 13-08-00558-CV ALVINO CHACON , Appe l lant , v. WAL-MART STORES, INC ., Appe l l ee . On appea l f rom the 105th Distr ict Cour t of Kl eberg County, Texas. OP I N I ON Before Chi ef Just ice Va ldez and Just i ces Yanez and Benav ides Opinion by Chi ef Just ice Va ldez a D EXHIBIT Use the “Combine PDF” option 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 KORI LUCKENBACH HOSEK, CSR 1 4 THE COURT : I j ust heard you say tha t . MR . HERRMAN : Okay . Wha t I ' m t ry i ng to say , Your Honor , i s I ' m admi t t i ng , even though i t ' s not i n our a f f i dav i t , tha t she knew . I 'm j ust agree i ng w i th h im, tha t she probab l y knew the va l ue of the case . She d i d work on i t for two years . But tha t ' s i r re l evant . I t doesn ' t ma t t er . Wha t happened was she wa l ks i n three days be fore the st a tut e runs , g i ves i t to my secre tary , says , " I 'm sor ry , I ' ve screwed up . Th i s st a tut e ' s ge t t i ng ready to run, y ' a l l need to f i l e a l awsu i t on th i s th i ng i mmed i a t e l y . " My secre tary , not know i ng the va l ue , j ust prepares a l awsu i t , runs i t by a l awyer , makes the l awyer go over i t and says , "We need to ge t th i s th i ng f i l ed . " Kyzmyck f i l ed an a f f i dav i t say i ng she d i dn ' t know the va l ue of the case . Debb i e , my secre tary , f i l ed an a f f i dav i t say i ng she d i dn ' t know the va l ue of the case . Kyzmyck says , " I d i dn ' t rea l i ze how bad l y th i s guy was i n j ured unt i l I got d i scovery f rom Wa l -Mar t three months l a ter and I had to star t pu l l i ng toge ther a l l the med i ca l records . Then I rea l i zed th i s case was wor th more than the j ur i sd i c t i ona l l i mi ts . " But , Your Honor , aga i n tha t i s st i l l not
29. COURT OF APPEALS THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS CORPUS CHRISTI - EDINBURG NUMBER 13-08-00501-CV ALVINO CHACON , Appe l lant , v. ANDREWS DISTRIBUTING COMPANY LTD. AND ROBERT SANCHEZ , Appe l l ees . NUMBER 13-08-00558-CV ALVINO CHACON , Appe l lant , v. WAL-MART STORES, INC ., Appe l l ee . On appea l f rom the 105th Distr ict Cour t of Kl eberg County, Texas. OP I N I ON Before Chi ef Just ice Va ldez and Just i ces Yanez and Benav ides Opinion by Chi ef Just ice Va ldez a D EXHIBIT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 KORI LUCKENBACH HOSEK, CSR 1 4 THE COURT : I j ust heard you say tha t . MR . HERRMAN : Okay . Wha t I ' m t ry i ng to say , Your Honor , i s I ' m admi t t i ng , even though i t ' s not i n our a f f i dav i t , tha t she knew . I 'm j ust agree i ng w i th h im, tha t she probab l y knew the va l ue of the case . She d i d work on i t for two years . But tha t ' s i r re l evant . I t doesn ' t ma t t er . Wha t happened was she wa l ks i n three days be fore the st a tut e runs , g i ves i t to my secre tary , says , " I 'm sor ry , I ' ve screwed up . Th i s st a tut e ' s ge t t i ng ready to run, y ' a l l need to f i l e a l awsu i t on th i s th i ng i mmed i a t e l y . " My secre tary , not know i ng the va l ue , j ust prepares a l awsu i t , runs i t by a l awyer , makes the l awyer go over i t and says , "We need to ge t th i s th i ng f i l ed . " Kyzmyck f i l ed an a f f i dav i t say i ng she d i dn ' t know the va l ue of the case . Debb i e , my secre tary , f i l ed an a f f i dav i t say i ng she d i dn ' t know the va l ue of the case . Kyzmyck says , " I d i dn ' t rea l i ze how bad l y th i s guy was i n j ured unt i l I got d i scovery f rom Wa l -Mar t three months l a ter and I had to star t pu l l i ng toge ther a l l the med i ca l records . Then I rea l i zed th i s case was wor th more than the j ur i sd i c t i ona l l i mi ts . " But , Your Honor , aga i n tha t i s st i l l not ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT WAL-MART STORES TEXAS LLC'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT ON THIS 28'h day of AUGUS T 2008, came to be heard Defendant Wa l -Mar t Stores Texas, LLC's Mot ion for Summary Judgment_ The Cour t , af ter reviewing the pleadings on fi le and consider ing the arguments of counse l , is of the opinion that Defendant Wa l -Mar t Stores Texas, LLC's Mot ion for Summary Judgment shal l be GRANTED_ IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED , ADJUDGED AND DECREED , that Defendant , WAL-MART STORES TEXAS, LLC's Mot ion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED . SIGNED this day of CAUSE NO . 07-380-D AUG 2 8 2008 E: l #600-109/Alv ino Chr rcan vs. t i 'Af1 P1eadings1 MSJ Order Page ] a 9 EXHIBIT ALVINO CHACON , § IN THE DISTRICT COURT Plaint i f f § vs . § 105TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT WAL-MART STORES, INC ., § ANDREWS DISTRIBUTING § COMPANY, LTD ., AND ROBERT § SANCHEZ § Defendants § KLEBERG COUNTY, TEXAS Permits easy circulation, easy internal links Use the “Combine PDF” option
30. This is not a “PDF Portfolio” Those do not work properly on the iPad, in a web browser, or using any non-Adobe PDF software. This is one reason to be very careful if you use a vendor.
31. Bookmarks
32. Appendix C Appendix A Appendix B The Court order encourages using “bookmarks” to help with internal navigation. Think about them like tabs, for your table of contents. Bookmarks
33. 2011 survey: If you have seen the bookmark feature, did it make the briefs easier to use? 9% 91% Among All Court Staff Yes No 100% ...Limited to Justices Graph shows those who answered “Yes” or “No” rather than “Unsure”.
34. Making a bookmark Using Acrobat Pro 1. Highlight the text you want to bookmark 2. Type control-B (or command-B on Mac) to create your new bookmark in the sidebar 3. Edit the text of the bookmark as it appears in the sidebar (watch for missing spaces for multi-line titles) 4. Adjust the indentation level of the bookmark Optionally:
35. Making E-Briefs: Hyperlinks
36. Making a link between pages 1. click the “link” icon in the toolbar 2. draw a box around the text of the citation 3. in the window that pops up, choose “go to a page view” 4. navigate to that page (using bookmarks, previous links, etc.) 5. click “Set link” Using Acrobat Pro
37. Bookmarks only How far should you go? Selecting key items to get a hyperlink. A “full” e-brief that hyperlinks to everything.
38. “I would hyperlink everything” “You never know what I’m going to think is important” Justice Wainwright on what to link 0:49 Limited by cost or making filing cumbersome
39. Some links can signal importance The key case, “that tells me something” Key part of the record or diagram Justice Johnson on hyperlinks as emphasis 0:37
40. Reporter’s Record Clerk’s Record (Almost) Universally Loved 10:1 positive-feedback ratio Government Sites (legislative Generally Well-Received PDFs of Key Cases or Statutes Roughly 3:1 positive-feedback ratio
41. Word Counts Coming this fall...
44. An iPad screen is about 50% the size of paper 8.5 inches by 11 inches 93.5 square inches 5.82 inches by 7.75 inches 45 square inches Factor #1: Physical Size
45. Factor #2: Screen Resolution 768 pixels wide 1024 pixels tall on iPad and iPad 2 13-point fonts have 70-80 characters per line 768 pixels wide ~600 pixels (inside margins) = maybe 8 or 9 pixels per letter
48. 13 point Times New Roman rendered on iPad or iPad 2