ITEM 15E | THE APPELLATE RECORD
Obtaining and filing hearing transcripts. If a party wants a transcript of the hearing to be a part of the record, they must order it from the court reporter who attended the hearing and pay for it. It is usually very important to have the transcript included in the record. Without a transcript, the appellate court usually will only review clear errors apparent on the face of the final order. Very few errors can be determined from the face of an order, so a transcript should be obtained if at all possible.
If the appeal will be from a final agency order, the party wanting to appeal should generally file the hearing transcript with the clerk of the agency and give a copy to the administrative law judge before the recommended order is issued so that the administrative law judge can use it to prepare the recommended order. Similarly, if the appeal will be from an administrative law judge’s final order, the party wanting to appeal should generally file the transcript with the clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings before the administrative law judge issues the final order. In any case, the appellant should at least make sure the hearing transcript is included in the record on appeal.
Although the agency usually orders and files the transcript and provides for the other party to get a copy, not all agencies do so. Therefore, immediately after the hearing, a party considering an appeal should determine who will order and pay for the transcript.
Costs of record preparation. In addition to the cost of the transcript, there may be a charge for preparing the record on appeal, which the appellant must pay. That charge is currently $3.50 for each document that is included in the record as authorized by Section 28.24, Florida Statutes. Payment should be made directly to the agency issuing the final order, or, if the administrative law judge issues the final order, to the Division of Administrative Hearings. After the appellant has paid the required fee, the agency clerk or the clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings sends the record to the district court of appeal. See Chapter 3 on Pulling Together the Record on Appeal.
Often, the appellant will only receive a copy of the index to the record on appeal, and not a copy of record with the actual documents. This may change as more courts and agencies transition to electronic filing. The record index lists each document in the record with the corresponding page numbers. The parties will use the record index to cite to the pages of the record in his or her appellate brief. See Chapter 120, Florida Statutes.
You might need to reference it during your pursuit of justice.
For instance, you might need to examine this handbook in order to protect yourself from judges/lawyers/organizations who break the law (see this example of a Florida judge who outright committed perjury).
Nevertheless – and as always – please get the justice you deserve.
Sincerely,
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