Overview
When an appeal is filed, Request Central can capture the Court of Appeals notification and either add it to a Request you already have or create a new one for you.
This matters because appeals run on tight timelines, and a transcript request is a critical step in any appeal. That step is easy to miss or delay, especially for a less experienced appellant. This service gives you timely notice that an appeal is happening, so a missing or late transcript request does not hold up the case. When a Request has already been submitted, it would typically have gone in with the appeal number still listed as TBD and without the detail contained in the Notice of Appeal. This service flows that information directly into the Request and notifies everyone involved, with no extra effort from you or the parties.
This article explains how that works and what to do when one of these Requests appears.
How the notification reaches TRX
When an appeal is filed with the Court of Appeals, the Court emails the county the appeal originated from. Under the agreement between TRX and the county, TRX receives a copy of that notification. This capture runs only in jurisdictions that have contracted with TRX for the service, so it will not appear in every jurisdiction.
The email contains:
The case name
The trial court case number
The assigned appeal number
A PDF attachment of the full Notice of Appeal (NoA)
For some appeals, this email is the first notice the court reporter or transcriber has that an appeal exists. In other cases, the appellant has already placed a transcript Request in Request Central.
How the system matches the email
When TRX receives the email, it searches for an active Request that shares the same trial court case number listed in the email. An active Request is one that has not been completed or cancelled.
What happens next depends on whether a match is found.
If a matching Request is found
The email details and the PDF NoA are attached to the Messages tab of that Request. Everyone on the Request's Share tab, including the Provider and the Customer, is notified that a new message has been posted.
If no matching Request is found
The system creates a new Request populated with the submission date, case name, case number, and jurisdiction from the email. No other Request fields are populated automatically. The system then:
Assigns the new Request to the system user Sys Msg as the Customer. Sys Msg is a placeholder, used because the notice comes from the court rather than from a paying customer. It stays in place until the correct Provider and Customer take over the Request.
Attaches the NoA to the Messages tab.
Routes the Request to the listed court reporter or transcriber, based on the case number.
What to do when you receive one
Open the Request and review the NoA on the Messages tab.
Confirm the trial court case number and appeal details match a case you handle.
If the case is yours, claim the Request as the Provider. If it is not, reroute it to the correct Provider.
Change the Customer from Sys Msg to the actual customer, usually the appellant. Sys Msg is only a placeholder and should not remain on the Request.
If a duplicate now exists for the same appeal, cancel the extra Request.
Why a duplicate Request can happen
The match depends on a single field, the trial court case number. If a manually placed Request has the case number entered incorrectly, the system will not find it when the appeal email arrives, and it will create a separate Request. That leaves two Requests for the same appeal.
Accurate case number entry on manual Requests is what keeps the appeal information attached to existing work rather than spawning a duplicate. Catching a duplicate when it happens is the responsibility of the court reporter or transcriber. Review the details and cancel the extra Request.