In almost every appellate court, State or Federal, the general practice is for the Appellant to assemble either a Record or Appendix (hereinafter, the “Record”), paginated in accordance with the particular appellate court’s rules. Once complete, the appellant utilizes that Record for purposes of citation in his or her brief. For instance, the appellant might assert a particular fact and rely on specific documents contained within the Record by citing to “R. 125.” (assuming the document in particular is located on pg. 125 within the paginated Record). The Record would typically also contain a Table of Contents so that the Appellate Court may refer to it when perusing the Record.
Not so in the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Term 2d Department (hereinafter, “AT2”). This Court reviews appeals from Orders handed down in 2d, 9th, 10th, 11th and 13th Judicial Districts of the New York City Civil Court. AT2 simply requires that an Appellant’s Brief be filed without an accompanying Record. This means that the Appellant must cite to specific documents when supporting its assertions of fact. For instance, rather than citing to “R. 125,” as noted hereinabove, the Appellant would cite to “Summons & Complaint, dated June 5, 2013” if he were asserting a fact as alleged in the Summons & Complaint. Logistically, while this might seem more confusing for both the litigants and the reviewing Court, it certainly does reduce the Appellant’s cost of perfecting his appeal.