Walker County District Court Document Format Requirements

CRITICALCivil cases

Exhibits must be pre-marked and comply with the Walker County General Order Regarding Evidence, and inadmissible material must be redacted.

Exhibits must be pre- marked and in compliance with the Walker County General Order Regarding Evidence. Any inadmissible material (e.g., references to insurance) shall be redacted.

CRITICAL

Media exhibits must be submitted in a format uploadable and acceptable to the appropriate Court of Appeals under its current guidelines.

The Court ORDERS that the sponsoring party of any such media exhibit must ensure it is submitted in a file format that can be uploaded and accepted by the appropriate Court of Appeals, following its guidelines as they exist at the time of the exhibit's admission.

CRITICAL

The order lists acceptable media exhibit formats, including .avi, .wmv, .wav, .mpg, .mid, .asf, .mpeg, .mpl, .mp2, .mp3, .mp4, .m4v, .ogg, .oga, .ogv, and .webm.

As of the issuance of this Order, acceptable formats include: .avi, .wmv, .wav, .mpg, .mid, .asf, .mpeg, .mpl, .mp2, .mp3, .mp4, .m4v, .ogg, .oga, .ogv, .webm.

CRITICAL

Before admission, the sponsoring party must convert media exhibits that are not in a listed or appellate-court-recognized format to a compatible format.

If an exhibit is not in one of these formats or in a format recognized by the appropriate appellate court, the sponsoring party must convert the media to a compatible format prior to admission.

CRITICAL

Each audio or video exhibit file may not exceed 2 GB.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that audio or video exhibits may not exceed 2 GB in size per file.

CRITICAL

A file exceeding 2 GB must be divided into smaller files, each no larger than 2 GB.

If a file exceeds this limit, it must be divided into smaller files not exceeding 2 GB each.

CRITICAL

Each segmented file must be clearly labeled externally and in the media device file name using the specified exhibit, party, description, and file-number format.

Each segmented file must be clearly labeled both externally and within the media device file name using the following format: "Exhibit- [Party Name} {Description]- [File Number} of [Total Files]" e.g., "Exhibit - Defendant Smith Statement - 1 of 2. "

CRITICAL

Oversized or enlarged exhibits must be accompanied by 8.5-by-11-inch copies with a marked exhibit sticker on the front, retained by the court reporter for the appellate record.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that all oversized or enlarged exhibits shall be accompanied by 8.5" x 11" copies bearing a marked exhibit sticker on the front, which shall be retained by the court reporter for the record on appeal.

CRITICAL

An oversized or enlarged exhibit offered must be an exact replica of the admitted exhibit.

Any oversized or enlarged exhibit offered must be an exact replica of the admitted exhibit.

CRITICAL

Format

PDF

Each computer file of a text document must be submitted as a text-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 Adobe Reader.

CRITICAL

Text-document files must not be password-protected, encrypted, or restricted by rights management.

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

CRITICAL

Scanned exhibits must be made text-searchable using OCR software.

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

CRITICAL

Before trial or jury selection, each party must submit proposed jury-charge definitions, instructions, and questions for which it bears an affirmative burden, in written and electronic form using a format specified by the court if applicable.

Each party must prepare and submit to the court, prior to trial or jury selection, all proposed jury charge definitions, instructions, and questions that are anticipated based on the pleadings and evidence and for which the party bears an affirmative burden. These submissions must be provided in both written form and electronically-via email, flash drive, or another format as specified by the court.

WARNING

The inventory and appraisement must use a form substantially similar to Form 7-1 of the Texas Family Law Practice Manual.

The inventory and appraisement shall be in a form substantially similar to Form 7-1 of the Texas Family Law Practice Manual published by the State Bar of Texas

WARNING

Property and liabilities in the inventory must be listed in columns, and each column must be totaled.

All property and liabilities shall be listed in a columnar form with each column totaled.