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5th Cir. R. 30.1 — Records on Appeal/Record Excerpts/Appendix - Appeals from District Courts, the Tax Court, and Agencies: the court's own rule, verbatim from RULES and INTERNAL OPERATING PROCEDURES OF THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT (December 2025), official PDF, sha-custodied. Court-level requirement: applies to appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit alongside the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure.
Appeals from district courts and the Tax Court are decided on the original record on appeal (ROA). The clerk is authorized to require the party receiving the ROA to pay reasonable shipping costs as a condition of receiving the record. Moreover, counsel and unrepresented parties must review the ROA within 20 days of dispatch from the clerk’s office and advise electronically or in writing both the appropriate District Court (or the Tax Court, if appropriate) and Fifth Circuit clerk’s offices of any errors in, or omissions from, the ROA. Failure to comply may result in a denial of any requested extension of time to file a brief due to an alleged error in, or incomplete ROA. Record excerpts are filed in lieu of the appendix prescribed by FED. R. APP. P. 30. Petitions for review or enforcement of agency orders are governed by 5TH CIR. R. 30.2, but parties may be required to pay reasonable shipping costs, and are responsible for timely review of the record and the notification requirements set out above. 30.1.1 Purpose. The record excerpts are intended primarily to assist the judges in making the screening decision on the need for oral argument and in preparing for oral argument. Counsel need excerpt only those parts of the record that will assist in these functions. 30.1.2 Filing. Four paper copies of excerpts of the district court record must accompany the appellant’s brief, see 5TH CIR. R. 30.1.4 and 30.1.5. If exempt from electronic filing under 5TH CIR. R. 25.2, all appellants represented by counsel must file an electronic copy of the record excerpts on a CD, computer diskette, or such other electronic medium as the clerk may authorize. The electronic copy must be in a single Portable Document Format (PDF) file; contain nothing other than the record excerpts; and have as the first page of the electronic copy an index to the contents. If submitted on a CD, diskette, or other authorized physical media, the electronic version must have a label containing the case name and docket number and state “Record Excerpts.” The appellant must serve a paper and electronic copy of the excerpts on counsel for each of the parties separately represented; a paper copy on any party proceeding pro se, and an electronic copy, if the pro se party is not an inmate confined in an institution. The appellee may similarly submit and serve additional record excerpts with the appellee’s principal brief, with the required copies furnished to the clerk accompanying the appellee’s brief. 30.1.3 Prisoner Petitions Without Representation by Counsel. Prisoners without counsel are not required to prepare and file record excerpts. 30.1.4 Mandatory Contents. The record excerpts must contain copies of the following portions of the district court record: (a) The docket sheet; (b) The notice of appeal; (c) The indictment in criminal cases; (d) The jury’s verdict in all cases; (e) The judgment or interlocutory order appealed; (f) Any other orders or rulings sought to be reviewed; (g) Any relevant magistrate judge’s report and recommendation; (h) Any supporting opinion or findings of fact and conclusions of law filed, or transcript pages of any such delivered orally; and (i) A certificate of service if required by FED. R. APP. P. 25(d). 30.1.5 Optional Contents. The record excerpts may include those parts of the record, referred to in the briefs including: (a) Essential pleadings or relevant portions thereof; (b) The parts of the FED. R. CIV. P. 16(e) pretrial order relevant to any issue on appeal; (c) Any jury instruction given or refused that presents an issue on appeal, together with any objection and the court's ruling, and any other relevant part of the jury charge; (d) Findings and conclusions of the administrative law judge, if the appeal is of a court order reviewing an administrative agency determination; (e) A copy of the relevant pages of the transcript when the appeal challenges the admission or exclusion of evidence or any other interlocutory ruling or order; and (f) The relevant parts of any written exhibit (including affidavits) that present an issue on appeal. 30.1.6 Length. The optional contents of the record excerpts must not exceed 40 pages unless authorized by the court. 30.1.7 Form. The record excerpts must: (a) Have a numbered table of contents, with citation to the record, beginning with the lower court docket sheet; (b) Be on letter-size, light paper, reproduced by any process that results in a clear black image. Care must be taken to reproduce fully the document filing date column on the docket sheet; (c) Be tabbed to correspond to the numbers assigned in the table of contents; (d) Be bound to expose fully the filing date columns and allow the document to lie reasonably flat when opened. The record excerpts must have a durable white cover conforming to FED. R. APP. P. 32(a)(2), except that it will be denominated “RECORD EXCERPTS.” The documents constituting the record excerpts do not need to be certified, but if the clerk's "filed" markings are either absent or not clearly legible, the accurate filing information must be typed or written thereon. 30.1.8 Nonconforming record excerpts. Record excerpts which do not conform to the requirements of this rule will be filed, but must be corrected within the time directed by the clerk. Failure to file corrected record excerpts may result in their being stricken and imposition of sanctions, under 5TH CIR. R. 32.5.
Appeals from district courts and the Tax Court are decided on the original record on appeal (ROA). The clerk is authorized to require the party receiving the ROA to pay reasonable shipping costs as a condition of receiving the record. Moreover, counsel and unrepresented parties m