Montague County District Court, Texas Document Format Requirements

A sponsoring party must ensure electronic media exhibits are in a format accepted by the appropriate Court of Appeals or convert them to an acceptable format.

Effective immediately, the following order shall apply to all parties when seeking to introduce an audio, video, CD, DVD, or other electronic media storage devices. The Court ORDERS that the sponsoring part of such media exhibits shall ensure that it is in a format that may be uploaded and accepted by the appropriate Court of Appeals applying its guidelines at the time of the admission of the exhibit. In the event that the exhibit is not in a format acceptable to the appropriate Court of Appeals, the sponsoring party shall convert the item to an acceptable format.

An audio exhibit file may not exceed 100 MB.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that audio exhibits may not exceed 100 MB in any single file.

A video exhibit file may not exceed 5 GB.

Video files may not exceed 5 GB in any single file.

Audio or video files exceeding their size limits must be divided into compliant files and labeled on both the exhibit exterior and the media device file name using the stated example format.

In the event that the audio or video file exceeds these size limits, the file shall be divided into separate files that do not exceed the stated limits and shall be labeled (both on the outside of the exhibit and the file name on the media storage device) with the following format as an example: "Exhibit ____--Defendant Smith Statement—1 of 2"

Media admitted as an exhibit may contain only the segments offered, which must be copied onto a separate disk when only some segments are offered.

Further, only segments offered as an exhibit can be on the audio or video media admitted as an exhibit; e.g., for a disc of jail phone calls with 50 calls, if only certain calls are being offered, then only those calls to be offered should be copied onto a separate disk and the separate disk offered as an exhibit.

Oversized or enlarged exhibits must be accompanied by 8-1/2 x 11 copies bearing a marked exhibit sticker, which the Court Reporter retains for the appellate record.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that all oversized or enlarged exhibits shall be accompanied by 8-1/2 x 11 copies, with a marked exhibit sticker on the front, which the Court Reporter shall retain for the record on appeal.

An exhibit used in oversized form must be an exact replica of the exhibit admitted.

Any exhibits that the party desires to utilize in an oversized form shall be an exact replica of the exhibit that was admitted.

An oversized or enlarged exhibit may be used only demonstratively; the 8-1/2 x 11 copy is the official exhibit for the record.

The oversized or enlarged exhibit shall only be utilized for demonstrative purposes to the fact finder; however, the 8-1/2 x 11 copy will become the official exhibit for record purposes.

Format

PDF

Each computer file of a text document must be submitted as a searchable PDF compatible with the latest version of Adobe Reader.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that each computer file of a text document must be submitted in text searchable Portable Document Format (PDF), compatible with the latest version of Abode Reader.

A computer file must not be password protected, encrypted, or protected by rights management.

The computer file must not be password protected, encrypted, or protected by rights management.

All scanned exhibits must be made searchable using OCR software.

All scanned exhibits shall be made searchable using optical-character-recognition (OCR) software, such as Abode Acrobat.

If, during an appeal, the Court of Appeals cannot open an admitted exhibit, the sponsoring party must provide the Court Reporter with the exhibit in an acceptable format.

In the even that a case is on appeal and the Court of Appeals cannot open an exhibit that was admitted, the sponsoring party that offered the exhibit will be responsible for providing the Court Reporter with the exhibit in an acceptable format.