New E-Filing Rules for the New York State Appellate Division

This year, the new Electronic Filing Rules adopted by the Departments of the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Divisions became effective. E-filing for the Appellate Division will take place using the New York State Courts Electronic Filing System, also used by the Supreme Court. See: www.nycourts.gov/efile. (The Court of Appeals uses the Court-PASS system.) Appendix A to the new rules lists technical requirements for the filings:

1. Text searchable PDF/A format.

2. Bookmarks linking sections listed on the table of contents to the corresponding pages.

3. Motion papers must be combined in a single PDF with bookmarks linking to each successive document.

4. Each volume of an appellate appendix must be filed separately.

5. No single PDF can be more than 100 MB.

In addition the rules specify that, "The 'initial view' of a PDF shall be the Bookmarks Panel and Page." This is a clear reference to a setting in Adobe Acrobat which can be found under File . . . Properties, and is not present in Adobe Reader. Click on the 'Initial View' tab and select 'Bookmarks and Panel and Page' in the navigation tab drop down menu.