Court Documents & the Record
Filings, transcripts, exhibits and the record on appeal, in the form each court wants.
A record cite makes a promise: open this page and you will see what my sentence says. Judges test the promise, and the Fifth Circuit even follows it by machine, turning each properly formed cite into a link. Below, two real citations taken apart: a complaint from another case, and an Eighth Circuit cite into the district-court record.
A filing from another case
Compl. ¶ 1, United States v. Google LLC, No. 1:20-cv-03010 (D.D.C. Oct. 20, 2020), ECF No. 1.
- 1 document title, shortened
- 2 pinpoint: ¶ for numbered paragraphs
- 3 case name, italic in court documents
- 4 docket number as the court’s system prints it
- 5 court, and the day this document was filed
- 6 entry number on the docket
A cite into the record on appeal (Eighth Circuit)
R. Doc. 91-2, at 5.
- 7 record designation the court’s rule prescribes
- 8 docket entry
- 9 attachment
- 10 page within the attachment, after a comma
16.1Reading a record citation
In the print and Kindle editions
16.2What a record cite proves, and what it doesn’t
In the print and Kindle editions
16.3Filings in your own case
In the print and Kindle editions
16.4Filings from other cases
In the print and Kindle editions
16.5Competing page numbers
In the print and Kindle editions
16.6Transcripts and depositions
In the print and Kindle editions
16.7Jury instructions and verdict forms
In the print and Kindle editions
16.8Declarations, exhibits, Bates numbers and discovery responses
In the print and Kindle editions
16.9The record on appeal, court by court
In the print and Kindle editions
16.10State appellate records
In the print and Kindle editions
16.11Sealed, redacted and private material
In the print and Kindle editions
16.12Short forms: repeat, define, and when id. works
In the print and Kindle editions
16.13Errors to catch
In the print and Kindle editions