The Appeals Court has posted the Clerk's Guide to Electronic Briefs. It contains step-by-step instructions and illustrations for how to assemble an electronic PDF brief and record appendix for submission through the Appeals Court's eFileMA system. The guide is available as a PDF download here.
E-filed briefs, addenda, and appendices shall be formatted in accordance with the Massachusetts Rules of Appellate Procedure 16, 18, and 20(a) governing formatting of documents, including organization, margins, length limits, and font style and size. No color cover is required. The Court has produced a set of quick tips and a more comprehensive checklist for producing an e-filed brief. The Court has also created a Brief Template and an Appendix Template that can help you meet the formatting requirements.
The Brief, Addendum, and Certificates of Service and Compliance must be saved and submitted as a single searchable PDF file. The Appendix must be saved and submitted as a searchable separate PDF file.
Documents larger than the 50 MB size limit may be submitted for e-filing only if they are broken up into separate segments, each below the size limit.
Because each volume of appendix must be less than 50 MB, it is recommended that you ascertain the file size of the appendix before applying page numbers and completing your table of contents and brief citations.
You must indicate both on the cover of the document and in the "Description" field in eFileMA.com that the filing is one of multiple volumes (for example, after uploading an Appendix volume, you should put in its Description field "Volume I of II" or “Volume II of II”).
All briefs and appendix volumes must start with the cover as page 1, so that the page numbers on the document match the page numbers displayed in the PDF reader software. Blank pages should be avoided whenever possible. Any that remain should be marked "Intentionally Blank" or similar, and should have a page number so that sequential numbering is maintained.
To facilitate reading multi-volume appendices in electronic form:
- Each volume of the appendix shall be designated by a roman numeral on the cover and shall be separately paginated beginning with the cover as page one. All subsequent pages should be numbered consecutively, including the table of contents. Do not continue page numbers across multiple volumes. Thus, your brief should cite to both the volume and its page number (for example “App. I at 155” or “R.A. II at 49”).
- The first volume of the appendix shall include a complete table of contents referencing all volumes of the appendix, and each individual volume shall include a table of contents for that volume.
Due to size limitations, you may need to submit multiple envelopes to e-file all of your appendices. To minimize PDF file size, follow these instructions.
To minimize file size, you must configure your scanners to scan text documents at 200 dpi and in black and white rather than in color. You must verify the legibility and orientation of all PDF documents before e-filing them. Any reproduction of an exhibit in an appendix should be of sufficient resolution to ensure a legible and accurate representation of the exhibit, including using color only if color is relevant. A color photograph marked or admitted as an exhibit in the lower court and included in the appendix must be in color. Lower court color-coded forms need not be reproduced in color.
Although not required by court rule, the Appeals Court encourages all parties filing any brief or record appendix in the Appeals Court to include both bookmarks and internal links. The Appeals Court has posted a guide that explains the benefits of internal links and how to add them to a brief and record appendix. The guide is available here.
