In The Court of Appeals Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana

No. 06-13-00083-CV

IN THE INTEREST OF K.C.B., MINOR CHILD

On Appeal from the County Court at Law Hopkins County, Texas Trial Court No. 37,125 CCL

Before Morriss, C.J., Carter and Moseley, JJ.

ORDER The Hopkins County District Clerk has filed a motion requesting permission to file a supplemental clerk’s record in this case in paper rather than electronic form. Effective January 1, 2014, the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure require all records filed with appellate courts after that date to be filed electronically. Appendix C, which governs the preparation of clerk’s records, states, “Unless the clerk receives permission from the appellate court to file the record in paper form, the clerk must file the record electronically.” TEX. R. APP. P. app. C, Rule 1.2.

As an initial matter, we point out that this Court’s staff must convert all records received in paper form to electronic form prior to filing. Thus, a district clerk’s failure to comply with the Rules, which are applicable statewide, creates an additional workload for the staff of this Court.

Electronic filing with this Court requires some very basic tools—a computer, a scanner, an appropriate software package (such as Adobe Acrobat), and internet access—all of which are easily obtainable and relatively affordable. The Office of Court Administration is available to assist trial-level clerk’s offices with the transition from paper to electronic filing. To obtain this assistance, contact Casey Kennedy ([email protected]), who can provide information about the easiest and least expensive way to set up a compliant system.

We expect Hopkins County to begin electronically filing records with this Court as soon as possible, but under no circumstances should the transformation from paper to electronic filing remain incomplete beyond March 31, 2014.

The motion to file the supplemental clerk’s record in paper form in this specific case is granted. Requests to file documents in paper form in other matters will be handled on a case-by- case, filing-by-filing basis.

BY THE COURT Date: January 22, 2014