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Monday, October 15, 2007

Ind. Courts - Supreme Court withdraws amendment to Appellate Rule 43(K) mandating electronic filing of briefs effective Jan. 1, 2008

The ILB had planned to write today on one of the Supreme Court amendments to the Appellate Rules issued Sept. 10th and effective Jan. 1, 2008 -- specifically the amendment to Rule 43(K), Form of Briefs and Petitions: Copy of Document in Electronic Format.

You can access the amendment here (via the page titled "2007 Orders Amending Indiana Rules of Court"): Order Amending Rules of Appellate Procedure (Rules 14, 15, 22, 23, 43, and 57). It is on page 5 of the document.

The amendment reads:

K. Copy of Document in Electronic Digital Format.
All documents may must be accompanied by a digital copy of the document in Word or text-searchable PDF format electronic format. Any electronic format used by the word processing system to generate the document is permissible. The document may be received by the Clerk’s Office on a floppy disk or CD with the filing of the hard copies of the document, or it may be transmitted to the Clerk’s Office by e-mail to clerk@courts.state.in.us on the same day the hard copies are filed. Unrepresented parties are excused from compliance with the requirements of this section of Rule 43 only.
The ILB had planned a post today noting the upcoming rule amendment requiring that a copy of briefs be filed electronically/digitally and expressing the hope that this change would mean that the briefs soon would be available online to the public, just as the appellate decisions now are.

However, this morning the ILB was alerted to check again by a posting in Indiana Daily Insight citing a headline in the October 15 issue of Indiana Legislative Insight that reads "Supremes back off electronic filing rule".

Sure enough, the requirement has been withdrawn. You can access the NEW amendment here (also via the page titled "2007 Orders Amending Indiana Rules of Court"): Order Amending the Order Amending the Rules of Appellate Procedure (Rule 43(K) - Effective Immediately. (Note: adding to the confusion, one of the links the Supreme Court page provides is incorrect and leads back to the Sept. 10 language.)

Here is the "Order Amending Order Amending Rules of Appellate Procedure":

On September 10, 2007, this Court issued an Order Amending Rules of Appellate Procedure. Included in this Order was an amendment to Ind. Appellate Rule 43(K). The amendment to Appellate Rule 43(K) was inadvertently included in the September 10 Order and was not intended to be issued in that form at that time. We find that the portion of our September 10, 2007 Order Amending Rules of Appellate Procedure purporting to amend Appellate Rule 43(K) should be stricken.

IT IS, THEREFORE, ORDERED that the portion of our September 10, 2007 Order Amending Rules of Appellate Procedure, concerning Appellate Rule 43(K), is stricken and that in all other respects the Order is confirmed.

The ILB has posted a number of times over the years on its disappointment that appellate briefs are not available via the Indiana Courts' website. Take a look at this posting from Nov. 25, 2005. Now, two years later, it seems no progress at all has been made.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 15, 2007 07:55 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts