Preparing the Appellate Record in California

Written Materials and Oral Proceedings

The record has two parts. The written record consists of documents from the trial-court file, presented as a clerk's transcript prepared by the superior court or, in civil appeals, as an appendix prepared by the parties under the rules that permit that alternative. The record of oral proceedings is ordinarily a reporter's transcript of the hearings that matter to the appeal; where no reporter was present, the rules provide for an agreed statement or a settled statement instead.

Clerk's and Reporter's Transcripts in California

Designating the Record

In a civil appeal the appellant designates the record — identifying the documents, exhibits, and oral proceedings to be included — within the time the rules provide after the notice of appeal, and the respondent may designate additional materials. In criminal appeals the normal record is prepared without a designation, and the parties may request additions.

The designation drives both what the reviewing court will see and what the appeal will cost, because transcripts and clerk's transcripts are prepared at the requesting party's expense.

• California Rules of Court — Record on AppealJudicial Council of California courts.ca.gov

The Superior Court's Role

The superior court's appeals unit assembles the clerk's transcript, obtains the reporter's transcript from the reporter or the electronic-recording transcript where authorized, certifies the record, and transmits it to the reviewing court. How that work is organized, and how long it takes, differs among the 58 superior courts.

District Local Rules Add Requirements

Several districts supplement the statewide designation rules. The Second District, for example, requires each requested oral proceeding to be identified by date, department, reporter, and nature of the proceeding and each document by title and filing date; other districts publish their own rules on appendices, record formatting, and requests to augment or correct the record. Those local rules are published on each district's website and should be checked for the district that will hear the appeal.

California Appeals Before the Courts of Appeal

Correcting or Augmenting the Record

If designated material is omitted from the record, the omission is ordinarily corrected through the superior court clerk. Adding other material that was before the trial court requires a motion to augment in the reviewing court under the statewide rules. Augmentation is not a mechanism for introducing evidence that was never before the trial court.

Record Preparation Should Track the Appellate Issues

The objective is not to create the largest possible record. It is to provide the reviewing court with the materials necessary to evaluate the issues actually presented, and to do so at a cost proportionate to the appeal.

• California Civil Appeals
• Appellate Strategy Before Judgment