Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.128 · Article 2. Record on Appeal
Superior court file instead of clerk's transcript
Text — As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
(a) Stipulation; time to file
(1) If a local rule of the reviewing court permits, the parties may stipulate to use the original superior court file instead of a clerk's transcript under rule 8.122. This rule and any supplemental provisions of the local rule then govern unless the superior court orders otherwise after notice to the parties.
(2) Parties intending to proceed under this rule must file their stipulation in superior court with the appellant's notice designating the record on appeal under rule 8.121. The parties must serve the reviewing court with a copy of the stipulation.
(b) Cost estimate; preparation of file; transmittal
(1) Within 10 days after a stipulation under (a) is filed, the superior court clerk must send the appellant an estimate of the cost to prepare the file, including the cost of sending the index under (3). The appellant must deposit the cost or file an application for, or an order granting, a waiver of the cost within 10 days after the clerk sends the estimate.
(2) Within 10 days after the appellant deposits the cost or the court files an order waiving that cost, the superior court clerk must put the superior court file in chronological order, number the pages, and attach a chronological index and a list of all attorneys of record, the parties they represent, and any unrepresented parties.
(3) The clerk must send copies of the index to all attorneys of record and any unrepresented parties for their use in paginating their copies of the file to conform to the index.
(4) The clerk must send the prepared file to the reviewing court with the reporter's transcript. If the appellant elected to proceed without a reporter's transcript, the clerk must immediately send the prepared file to the reviewing court.
Notes and commentary — not rule text
History
(Subd (a) amended effective January 1, 2008; previously amended effective January 1, 2007.)
(Subd (b) amended effective January 1, 2016; previously amended effective July 1, 2009.)
Rule 8.128 amended effective January 1, 2016; repealed and adopted as rule 5.2 effective January 1, 2002; previously amended and renumbered as rule 8.128 effective January 1, 2007; previously amended effective January 1, 2008, and July 1, 2009.
Advisory Committee Comment
Subdivision (b). The superior court will make the determination on any application to waive the fees for preparing and transmitting the trial court file.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
- Official file
- https://courts.ca.gov/cms/rules/index/eight/rule8_128
- Text hash
- sha256 bc1e83ab172e86ee49a889ed876310b73e8961314d5379025b9b090084a6fd6d
- Composed by
- compose_crc.py 2026-10-22: the Judicial Council's rule pages read paragraph by paragraph; verify_crc.py's second reading of the Council's per-title PDFs finds every paragraph
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