The Skinny on Appendix Tabs

And now, the long-awaited answer to Marge Fuller's question at last week's OCBA Appellate Law Section meeting . . . are you allowed to use tabs in our appendices?

Yes.  If they fit.

Here's the deal.

The 4/3 stores the appellate record -- briefs, reporter's transcripts, clerk's transcripts, miscellaneous filed documents, and appendices -- in plastic magazine file boxes.  The file boxes are about 11 1/2 " tall, 4" deep . . . and 8 3/4" wide. 

Skinny side tabs are therefore okay.  Most documents are written on paper that's 8 1/2" wide.  So an appendix with side tabs will still fit in the file boxes if the tabs stick out 1/4" or less.  Wider side tabs will still be okay if they can bend a little bit.  As long as they go into the file box, they're fine.

But very wide side tabs are discouraged.  If the tabs stick out more than 1/4" and won't flex a little, the appendix wont' fit into the file box.

And bottom tabs are forbidded.  Appendices with bottom tabs won't sit flush in the file boxes.  They'll just wobble around until the bottom tabs are crushed.  That's no good.

Top tabs?  I haven't seen any, but they would fit, I guess.

TRIVIA:  Around here we call the file boxes "doghouses."  A case with a short record, less than 4" thick, will be a "one doghouse case."  A case with a lengthy record may be a "five doghouse case" or a "10 doghouse case" or, as I've seen, a "35 doghouse case."  I've heard tale of 100 doghouse cases . . . .