Court of Appeal Filing Guidance and Preferences
The Second District has spelled out both rules and guidelines for the way briefs should look. To maximize the chance your briefs will be persuasive, we recommend that you follow these suggestions. As of January 1, 2020, a new state-wide Rule of Court, rule 8.74(b), sets forth formatting requirements that supersede all previous rules as to font, spacing, margins, and alignment in briefs.
Electronic Filing
The Second District also has guidelines for filing electronic documents in the Court of Appeal.
“Formatting Guidelines and Samples” from the Court
At the bottom of the Court of Appeal’s E-filing Information page there are links for various samples of documents (including writs and volumes of exhibits) that can be helpful guides when preparing your own documents.
E-Filing Documents in the California Supreme Court
Information on filing documents in the California Supreme Court
The Supreme Court suspended paper filings of merits briefs and the previously requested hard copy of petitions for review. See details and links to the rules.
Remember: Official court correspondence and notifications, including letters and orders, will still be sent to all parties via regular postal mail only.
Consecutive Pagination on Opinion Not Required: The pages of the attached Court of Appeal opinion should not be re-paginated to be numbered consecutively to the pages in the petition. In other words, attachments can have their own pagination.
Service on the Supreme Court via TrueFiling satisfies the requirement for service on the Court of Appeal. “Notwithstanding the requirements set forth in California Rules of Court, Rule 8.500(f)(1), submission of a petition for review through TrueFiling that is accepted for filing by the Supreme Court constitutes service of the petition on the Court of Appeal.”