The Record on Appeal in Florida: Designations, Transcripts, and Rule 9.200

Every Florida appeal rises or falls on the record. The Third District Court of Appeal in Miami cannot consider evidence, argument, or testimony that is not properly before it, and Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.200 is the rule that determines exactly what the appellate court gets to see. An appellant who fails to assemble a complete record risks affirmance for that reason alone, because Florida law presumes the trial court's ruling is correct unless the record demonstrates otherwise. Our Miami appellate attorneys handle record preparation, transcript designations, and record supplementation in appeals throughout Miami-Dade County, and this page explains how the process works, what the deadlines are, and where appeals most often go wrong.

What the Record on Appeal Includes Under Rule 9.200(a)

Under Rule 9.200(a)(1), unless the parties direct otherwise, the record consists of all documents filed in the lower tribunal, all exhibits that are not physical evidence, and any transcripts of proceedings that have been properly prepared and filed. In a Miami circuit court case, the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts compiles this record electronically, prepares an index, and transmits it to the Third District Court of Appeal.

Two points deserve emphasis:

• The record is not automatic in the way many litigants assume. The clerk assembles the court file, but transcripts do not exist in the record unless someone orders them from the court reporter and has them filed. Hearings and trials are not transcribed by default.
• The appellant bears the burden. Rule 9.200(e) states plainly that the burden to ensure the record is prepared and transmitted rests on the appellant (or the petitioner in original proceedings). If a critical hearing transcript is missing, the appellate court will not guess at what happened; it will presume the trial judge got it right.

Directions to the Clerk: The 10-Day Deadline

Rule 9.200(a)(3) allows any party to direct the clerk to include or exclude specific documents from the record. The appellant must serve these directions within 10 days of filing the notice of appeal. If the appellant directs that fewer than all documents be included, the appellant must serve a statement of the judicial acts to be reviewed, and the appellee then has 20 days from the filing of the notice (or 10 days after service of the appellant's directions, whichever is later, depending on the posture) to direct the clerk to include additional documents.

These directions matter most in large cases. A commercial dispute litigated in Miami-Dade circuit court for five years may have thousands of docket entries; trimming the record can reduce cost and focus the court's attention. But over-trimming is dangerous: an excluded document cannot support your argument on appeal.

Designating the Court Reporter: Rule 9.200(b)

Transcripts are the single most common record problem in Florida appeals. Rule 9.200(b) establishes a strict sequence:

1. Within 10 days of filing the notice of appeal, the appellant must designate to the approved court reporter or transcriptionist those portions of the proceedings not already on file that the appellant deems necessary. Fla. R. App. P. 9.200(b)(1).
2. Within 20 days of filing the notice, the appellee may designate additional portions. The appellee ordinarily bears the initial cost of its own additional designations, subject to taxation of costs later.
3. Within 30 days of service of a designation, the court reporter must transcribe and file the designated proceedings, or request an extension from the appellate court. Fla. R. App. P. 9.200(b)(3).

The designation must be accompanied by satisfactory financial arrangements with the reporter, designating without paying the deposit does not start the reporter's clock.

A Worked Example on the Calendar

Suppose a Miami-Dade circuit judge enters a final judgment on March 3. Under Rule 9.110's 30-day jurisdictional deadline, the notice of appeal must be filed by April 2. If the notice is filed on April 2:

• April 12: deadline to serve directions to the clerk and designations to the court reporter (10 days after the notice).
• April 22: deadline for the appellee's additional directions and designations (20 days after the notice).
• Roughly mid-May: court reporter's transcripts due (30 days after service of the designation).
• May 22: the clerk must transmit the record to the Third District within 50 days of the notice under Rule 9.110(e).
• June 11: the initial brief is due 70 days after the notice of appeal under Rule 9.110(f).

Notice how compressed this schedule is. Ordering transcripts on day one of the appeal (or even before filing the notice of appeal) is often the difference between a smooth briefing schedule and a scramble for extensions.

When There Is No Transcript: Statements of the Evidence

What if the hearing was never reported? Rule 9.200(b)(5) provides a safety valve. If no report of the proceedings was made or the transcript is unavailable, a party may prepare a statement of the evidence or proceedings from the best available means, including the party's own recollection. The statement must be served on the opposing party, who may serve objections or proposed amendments within 10 days of service. The statement and any objections are then submitted to the lower tribunal (the same Miami-Dade judge who presided) for settlement and approval, and the approved statement is included in the record.

This procedure is imperfect but essential. Without a transcript or an approved statement, appellate review of factual or evidentiary rulings is nearly impossible, and the presumption of correctness will usually doom the appeal. This is also why preserving error at trial and ensuring a court reporter is present at critical hearings go hand in hand.

Correcting and Supplementing the Record: Rule 9.200(f)

Mistakes happen; documents are omitted, exhibits are mislabeled, transcripts are filed in the wrong case. Rule 9.200(f)(1) allows errors or omissions in the record to be corrected by the parties by stipulation, by the lower tribunal, or by the appellate court. Critically, Rule 9.200(f)(2) provides that if the record is incomplete, the appellate court must direct a party to supply the omitted parts and may not decide the case against a party because of an incomplete record without first giving that party an opportunity to supplement.

In practice, supplementation in the Third District is handled by motion, and Miami practitioners routinely use it to add late-filed transcripts or overlooked exhibits. But supplementation is a cure for omission; it is not a vehicle to insert material that was never before the trial court. The appellate record is a snapshot of what the lower tribunal actually had; new evidence does not belong in it.

Why the Record Shapes Your Grounds for Appeal

The record and the merits are inseparable. If you are challenging an evidentiary ruling, a summary judgment, or a damages award, the viability of each argument depends on what the record shows. An issue that was never raised below, or a ruling made at an untranscribed hearing, may be effectively unreviewable no matter how strong it sounds. Before committing to a strategy, we evaluate the existing record against the potential grounds for appeal and identify exactly which transcripts and documents must be designated to support each argument in the Third District Court of Appeal.

Practical Checklist for Miami Appellants

• Order transcripts of the trial and every dispositive hearing immediately, ideally before filing the notice of appeal.
• Serve directions to the clerk and designations to the reporter within 10 days of the notice.
• Confirm financial arrangements with the court reporter in writing.
• Review the clerk's index as soon as the record is transmitted and move to supplement promptly if anything is missing.
• If a hearing was unreported, begin the Rule 9.200(b)(5) statement-of-evidence process without delay, because it requires trial court approval before briefing.

You can contact the Law Offices of Albert Goodwin by phone at 786-522-1411 or by email at [email protected].