PART IV — ELECTRONIC FILING, SERVICE, FEES, PRIVACY, AND DOCUMENT FORM
Rule 39. Appendices, exhibits, hyperlinks, and digital media
Appendix
An appendix must begin with an index identifying each item, date, source, lower-court docket reference, and starting appendix page. It should include only material necessary to understand jurisdiction, the issues, and the requested relief.
Required petition appendix
A petition seeking review ordinarily must append:
the judgment or order under review;
any opinion or findings supporting it;
an order resolving a timely post-judgment motion;
essential governing text not readily available; and
the minimum record excerpts needed to assess jurisdiction and preservation.
Record references
A brief must cite the authenticated record by appendix page, lower-court docket item, Bates number plus PDF page, exhibit identifier, or official transcript page. A bare hyperlink, timestamp without source, or description such as “see evidence” is insufficient.
No link-only filing
An external hyperlink may aid navigation but cannot substitute for uploading material the Court must consider. A party bears the risk of link expiration or access restriction. The Clerk may reject a filing whose operative content exists only behind an external link.
Digital exhibit foundation
A screenshot, chat log, recording, game clip, audit log, bot output, or telemetry extract must be accompanied by information sufficient to evaluate authenticity, including as applicable:
the source platform and account;
UTC creation or capture time;
the collector and method;
whether content was edited, cropped, filtered, transcribed, or recompressed;
relevant metadata or file hash;
the relationship between a display name and immutable user identifier;
the location of the complete native item; and
a declaration by a person with knowledge.
This Rule governs presentation, not ultimate admissibility.
Deleted or edited content
If a message or item was edited or deleted, the proponent must disclose that fact and preserve every available version, platform audit event, surrounding context, and collection method. A reconstruction must be labeled as such.
Demonstratives
A demonstrative used at argument is not evidence and must fairly reflect the record. It must be supplied to the Clerk and other parties at least twenty-four hours before argument unless the Court permits later use.
Lodging
Material that cannot safely or technically be uploaded may be lodged only after a motion or Clerk direction identifies the item, relevance, format, security needs, and proposed disposition. The Clerk must issue a receipt and preservation instruction.
Unnecessary material
The Court may order removal from consideration of duplicative, irrelevant, scandalous, unsafe, or technically abusive media and may allocate a lawful cost caused by unreasonable submission.