Counsel Press files daily in the Federal Circuit with our client firms depending on our staff counsel and appellate support staff to stay on top of technologies that keep their briefs and appendices looking and functioning as good as they read. A majority of those cases are technical, patent issues, so it is not uncommon to have video exhibits in the record. Until now, the video would be burned on a disk and inserted in a pocket within the appendix. This creates a few additional steps for the Court to actually view the video. We feel the easier it is to access any supporting material, the better you have a chance of presenting a winning argument. We are constantly looking for better ways to present a firm’s appendix materials to the Court to ensure that the judges have easy access to the file the firms want viewed. Now we can offer the judges video that plays directly from the e-filed appendix with no additional steps required to access the material.
The CP eBrief continues to be the very best tool for an interactive presentation to the Court. Now, with the Court committed to e-filing, we transfer some of the best of our powerful eBrief impact into the simpler pdfs that are uploaded in the course of every filing. A firm can leverage the current Adobe and Flash technology to embed video (or audio) directly into a pdf that can then be uploaded to the Federal Circuit, as well as most, if not all, other ECF courts. The video will look like any other pdf appendix page, but with the play arrow alerting the user that there is a video - just click and play.
We are excited to have e-filed an embedded video in a recent appeal. Of course, there are some limitations. Video has to be converted to the correct format. Longer videos may produce a file that is too large to upload depending on the file size restrictions of the particular court’s ECF system. The Adobe video plays with Flash, so the latest versions of that software and the proper Flash elements have to be installed to view the files properly. None of these problems should be a large obstacle if you have an appeal with video exhibits.
As I wrote about recently, we are enhancing many of our federal appellate filings to include direct links to the Pacer system for the convenience of the reviewing judges. This allows the litigants to gain much of the power of the eBrief when presenting their argument by offering hyperlinked cites directly to the record documents, but also limits their costs at the same time by not linking to case and other legal citations. You can read more about it here. When you couple embedded video exhibits and Pacer cites you make a powerful impact in presenting your arguments. If you decide later to enhance your documents we can take them to the full eBrief level at any time.
Here is a sample e-filed video page: Click here
If you have any questions or need assistance with preparing and filing your appeal, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. Counsel Press provides a full spectrum of appellate services. Our Washington, DC office focuses on rule-compliant appellate filings in the Maryland, DC and Virginia state and district courts, as well as the D.C. Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. We offer unparalleled in-depth expertise nationwide in all state & federal courts through our local offices.
Tagged: Appellate Services, Electronic Briefs, Court Technology, Production & Support, Litigation, Appellate Practice
