The Clerk of the Northern District of Texas recently announced that, “[u]nder the direction of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Northern District of Texas has implemented two key modifications that will impact the electronic record on appeal.”
Specifically, with respect to hearing/trial exhibits:
The Fifth Circuit requires the electronic record on appeal to include all exhibits that were admitted into evidence in a trial or other proceeding. ECF users must transmit copies of their proffered exhibits that were admitted into evidence in the district court case through ECF within 14 days of the date the notice of appeal was filed. A specific ECF docket event has been created for exhibits that are not sealed, and instructions for uploading both public and sealed exhibits into the district court case can be found here: http://www.txnd.uscourts.gov/exhibit-guide.
With respect to accessing the record on appeal:
After the district court notifies the parties that the electronic record on appeal has been certified, attorneys will be able to access a copy of the paginated record on appeal through the Fifth Circuit’s ECF system rather than on a disk provided by the district clerk. The record will contain only the public documents, and, if the appeal is of a criminal judgment, the presentence investigation report and related materials. The district court may only release sealed portions of the paginated record upon order of the Fifth Circuit.