The problem:  You spent a little extra money on color photos, maps, or exhibits before the trial court.  You felt like you had no choice—those exhibits are incomprehensible in black and white.

Now that your case is on appeal, you want those same photos, maps, and exhibits to appear in color for the North Carolina Court of Appeals or Supreme Court.  So, you just include those beautiful, color copies in the printed record on appeal. Unfortunately, when the printed record arrives in the mail from the Court, you sob as you realize that your stunning color documents are now all a black and white, illegible mess. 

What happened? 

Short answer:  You put your color documents in the wrong part of the record.

Explanation:  The Supreme Court has its own printing shop which scans all “printed record” documents (i.e., “the record proper”) after they are filed by the appellant.  The printing shop produces copies of the printed record from that scanned file and then distributes a printed record (the one with the gold cover) to the parties and judges.  The problem is that the Supreme Court’s printing shop does not have the ability to scan or print documents in color. Therefore, any color document that you include in your printed record on appeal will automatically be converted to a black and white document before being sent to the judges.

The solution:  It’s fine to include a black and white version in the printed record.  But include a note directing the Court to a color version of the document that you include in the Rule 9(d) documentary exhibit.  Unlike the printed record, the Rule 9(d) documentary exhibits are printed by the appellant and submitted to the Court of Appeals in triplicate.  Therefore, a color document in a Rule 9(d) documentary exhibit will remain in living color for all to see.