Section 3 - Filing and Service Procedures3.01. Time and Effect of E-Filing.(a)Filed upon transmission. Subject to acceptance by the clerk pursuant to paragraph (b), any document electronically submitted for filing shall be considered filed with the court when the transmission to the court's e-filing system is completed. Upon receipt of the transmitted document, the e-filing system shall automatically e-mail a transaction receipt to the e-filer, stating that the transmission of the document was completed and also stating the date and time of the document's receipt. The e-filer is responsible for verifying that the court received and filed the document transmitted. Absent confirmation of receipt, there is no presumption that the court received and filed the document. The transaction receipt shall serve as proof of filing.(b)Review by clerk. The clerk may review the document to determine if it conforms with the applicable filing requirements. If the clerk rejects the document for filing because it does not comply with the applicable filing requirements or because any required filing fee has not been paid, the clerk must promptly send notice to the registered user who filed the document; the notice must set forth the reason(s) the document was rejected for filing. If the clerk rejects the filing, the clerk may, in his or her discretion, give the filing party up to 3 days to correct the deficient filing; upon the filing party's timely submission of a corrected filing, the filing shall relate back to the date of the initial filing. Notification that the clerk has accepted the document for filing is not required.(c)"Filed" Stamp. E-filed documents accepted for filing by the clerk shall have a "filed" stamp affixed by the clerk. The clerk's stamp of an e-filed document must contain the following: "Electronically Filed/[Date] /[Name of Clerk]." This "electronically filed" stamp has the same force and effect as a manually affixed "filed" stamp of the clerk.(d)Time of filing. Any document e-filed by 11:59 p.m. at the clerk's local time in the grand division in which the appeal lies shall be deemed to be filed on that date, so long as it is accepted by the clerk upon review.(e)Documents Filed by the Court. The court may electronically transmit orders, opinions, judgments, and other court-issued documents through the appellate courts' e-filing system. When a document electronically transmitted by the court for filing by the clerk requires the signature of the judge(s), clerk, or authorized deputy clerk, the signature may be reflected at the end of the document by means of an electronic signature in the format: "s/ [judge's/clerk's/deputy clerk's name]," followed by the appropriate title (i.e., "Judge," "Clerk," "Deputy Clerk"). Any order, opinion, judgment, or other court-issued document filed electronically without the handwritten signature of the judge(s), clerk, or authorized deputy clerk but containing an approved electronic signature has the same effect as if the judge or clerk had signed a paper copy of the filing.
3.02. Format of Documents.(a) All e-filed documents shall be formatted in accordance with the terms-of-use agreement, the following requirements, and the applicable rules of the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure, other Rules of the Tennessee Supreme Court, the Rules of the Court of Appeals, and the Rules of the Court of Criminal Appeals governing formatting of paper-filed documents in the appellate courts, except that the provisions of the Rules of Appellate Procedure, the Rules of the Court of Appeals, and the Rules of the Court of Criminal Appeals relating to the number of copies, the color of the cover page, and the types of paper shall not apply. To the extent that there is any conflict between any other procedural rules and the provisions of this Rule concerning the format of documents that are e-filed, the provisions of this Rule shall govern. 1. Word limitations: Except by order of the Court, briefs shall comply with the following word limitations: (a) Principal briefs shall be limited to 15,000 words. (b) Reply briefs shall be limited to 5,000 words. (c) Amicus briefs shall be limited to 7,500 words. The following sections of a brief shall be excluded from these words limitations: the Title/Cover page, Table of Contents, Table of Authorities, and Certificate of Compliance, Attorney Signature Block, and Certificate of Service.
3. Font and font size (a) Font - Any font within the Century Family (b) Font size - 14 point font size (c) Footnotes - Footnotes shall be in the same font and font size as the text. 4. Full justification for margins.5. Pagination shall begin with page 1; for briefs page 1 will be the cover page. 6. The use of internal hyperlinks and bookmarks is encouraged. 7. The use of external hyperlinks to legal authorities is encouraged. External hyperlinks to legal authorities may not replace standard citation format. Complete citations must be included in the text of the filed document. Neither a hyperlink, nor any site to which it refers, shall be considered part of the record. Hyperlinks are simply convenient mechanisms for accessing material in a filed document. The court accepts no responsibility for, and does not endorse, any product, organization, or content at any hyperlinked site, or at any site to which that site may be linked. The court accepts no responsibility for the availability or functionality of any hyperlink.(b) All original documents (e.g., applications, briefs, motions, memoranda of law, and similar documents) that are e-filed shall be prepared through direct conversion from the word processing file to Portable Document Format and not through scanning of the original paper document. Notwithstanding the foregoing sentence, all attachments and appendices containing photocopies of documents may be scanned into Portable Document Format. E-filed PDF documents shall be text searchable, if possible.(c) Certificate of Compliance. An e-filed brief must include a Certificate of Compliance. The Certificate's statement of the number of words contained in the brief may be based upon the word count of the word processing system used to prepare the brief.3.03. Payment of Filing Fees.(a) Unless excused by statute or the court, statutory filing fees or other statutorily permitted fees and taxes required to be paid at the time of filing of an e-filed document must be paid with an approved form of electronic payment at the time of e-filing.(b) E-filing fees paid by the filing party are recoverable costs for purposes of Tenn. R. App. P. 40(c).3.04. Signatures.(a)Registered User's Signature. A registered user's use of the assigned log-in name and password to e-file a document serves as that user's signature on that document for all purposes. The identity of the e-filer must be reflected at the end of the document by means of an electronic signature, followed by the user's name, business address, telephone number, e-mail address, and number assigned by the Board of Professional Responsibility, if applicable.(b)Multiple signatures. An e-filer e-filing a document requiring the signatures of multiple attorneys (e.g., stipulations) must list thereon the names of all other attorney signatories and include their electronic signatures. By e-filing such a document, the e-filer certifies that each of the other attorneys has expressly agreed to the form and substance of the document, and that the e-filer has their permission to e-file the document. In the alternative, the e-filer may submit a scanned document containing all necessary signatures.(c)Signatures Under Penalty of Perjury and Notarized Signatures. Documents required by law to include a signature under penalty of perjury, or the signature of a notary public, may be e-filed, provided that the declarant or notary public has signed a printed form of the document. The printed document bearing the original signatures must be scanned as a PDF in a format that accurately reproduces the original signatures and contents of the document and electronically submitted for filing.(d)Effect of Signatures on E-Filed Documents. Any filing made under this rule shall bind the signatory as if a paper document were physically signed and filed. An e-filing therefore shall function as the signatory's attestation to the truthfulness of an e-filed affidavit, declaration, or certification, or as a validly signed document for any other purpose under the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure or other court rule.Amended by Order filed October 7, 2023; effective 10/16/2023.