Rule Text
When, because of exceptional circumstances, the parties are not able to cooperate on the preparation of the reproduced record as a single document, the appellee may, in lieu of proceeding as otherwise provided in this chapter, prepare, serve, and file a supplemental reproduced record setting forth the portions of the record designated by the appellee. A supplemental reproduced record shall contain the certificate of compliance required by Pa.R.A.P. 127. ‘‘Confidential Information’’ and ‘‘Confidential Documents’’, as those terms are defined in the Case Records Public Access Policy of the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, shall appear in the reproduced record in the same manner and format as they do in the original record.
Amendment history: The provisions of this Rule 2156 amended September 10, 2008, effective December 1, 2008, 38 Pa.B. 5257; amended January 5, 2018, effective January 6, 2018, 48 Pa.B. 461; amended June 1, 2018, effective July 1, 2018, 48 Pa.B. 3517. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (390001) to (390002).
Plain-English Summary (for reference only — not a substitute for the rule text above)
This summary is not the rule. The rule text controls.
Sometimes the two sides in an appeal cannot work together to create a single record document. When that happens, the person responding to the appeal (the appellee) can put together their own separate record, called a supplemental reproduced record, that includes the parts of the case record they think are important.
This supplemental record must include a certificate of compliance, which is a statement confirming the document follows court rules. Any private or confidential information in the record must be handled the same way it was in the original court documents, keeping sensitive details protected just as they were before.
Committee Notes
Former Supreme Court Rules 36, 38 and 57, former Superior Court Rules 28, 30, and 47 and former Commonwealth Court Rules 32A, 82, and 84 all inferentially recognized that a supplemental record might be prepared by the appellee, but the former rules were silent on the occasion for such a filing. The preparation of a single reproduced record has obvious advantages, especially where one party designates one portion of the testimony, and the other party designates immediately following testimony on the same subject. However, because of emergent circumstances or otherwise, agreement on the mechanics of a joint printing effort may collapse, without affording sufficient time for the filing and determination of an application for enforcement of the usual procedures. In that case an appellee may directly present the relevant portions of the record to the appellate court.
As the division of the reproduced record into two separate documents will ordinarily render the record less intelligible to the court and the parties, the preparation of a supplemental reproduced record is not favored and the appellate court may suppress a supplemental record which has been separately reproduced without good cause.
The Case Records Public Access Policy of the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania (‘‘Public Access Policy’’) does not apply retroactively to pleadings, documents, or other legal papers filed prior to the effective date of the Public Access Policy. Supplemental reproduced records may therefore contain pleadings, documents, or legal papers that do not comply with the Public Access Policy if they were originally filed prior to the effective date of the Public Access Policy.
