Appellate legal support
Fully pipelinedAppellate record review and indexing
The record is enormous and every citation in the brief has to be accurate to it. We index the record, map it for citation, and produce the preservation analysis that frequently determines which issues are worth briefing at all.
- Published price
- $500–2,000 / appeal
- Turnaround
- 1 to 2 weeks
- Without us
- $2,000–6,000 / appeal
Fixed per unit, not hourly. No minimum engagement. Quoted before we start.
How we actually produce this
Our pipeline produces the deliverable end to end. A qualified lawyer samples the output and signs it before it leaves us.
The pipeline is ours. It was built for legal work rather than adapted from a general product, which is why the price for this service is a published number instead of an hourly estimate.
- Why this work leaves a firm
- The record is enormous and every brief citation has to be accurate to it.
- What our pipeline does
- We index the full record with a citation map, extract every ruling, objection, offer of proof and preservation point, and tag by issue.
- Where a lawyer steps in
- Issue identification and all preservation conclusions.
- What it changes
- The preservation analysis frequently determines which issues are worth briefing at all.
What you receive
A record index with a citation map, a preservation analysis per issue, and an issue-tagged view.
Priced per appeal, with the range set by record volume. Records above roughly 5,000 pages are quoted after we have seen the index. The preservation analysis is a work product for your review - it is not an opinion on the merits of an appeal.
- A complete record index, organised so a citation can be located in seconds rather than minutes
- A citation map from record location to the form your court requires
- A preservation analysis showing where each issue was raised, ruled on, and whether it was preserved
- An issue-tagged view of the record, so all the material on one issue reads together
- A list of issues that appear not to have been preserved, with the reason and the record support
- A gap report where the record as transmitted appears incomplete
What it costs, and what it replaces
Both figures are published ranges for the same unit of work. Ours is fixed before we start; if our process gets faster, that is our gain and your price does not move.
How engagements are structured →- Adnah Legal
- $500–2,000 / appeal
- Typical cost without us
- $2,000–6,000 / appeal
Roughly 69% lower at the midpoint of each published range.
How the work runs
01
Ingest and index the record
The full record is ingested, OCR'd where necessary, and indexed to its own pagination so that every later reference resolves to the record as the court has it.
02
Tag by issue
Material relating to each issue you are considering is tagged and gathered, so an issue can be read across the record rather than hunted through it.
03
Trace preservation
For each issue, the pipeline traces where it was raised, whether it was ruled on, and whether an objection or offer of proof appears. Every step is cited to the record.
04
Lawyer review and delivery
A qualified lawyer reviews the preservation analysis - a preservation conclusion is a judgement and is never delivered unreviewed - and signs before the index and analysis are returned.
What we need from you
- The record on appeal, as transmitted
- The issues you are considering briefing
- The court and its citation conventions
- The briefing deadline
What we check before delivery
- Every index entry and citation is verified against the record's own pagination
- Preservation conclusions are reviewed by a qualified lawyer, with the record support cited for each
- Where preservation is genuinely arguable, the analysis says so rather than giving a clean answer
- Apparent gaps in the transmitted record are reported rather than worked around
When firms send us this
- Taking an appeal where trial counsel was someone else and the record is unfamiliar
- Deciding which issues are worth briefing before the drafting budget is spent
- Preparing for oral argument with an indexed rather than a remembered record
- Cross-checking a brief's citations against the record before filing
Questions about record review and indexing
Why is the preservation analysis the valuable part?
Because it frequently decides what gets briefed. An issue that was not preserved is usually not worth the pages, and finding that out before drafting rather than in the answering brief changes what the appeal costs and what it argues.
Do you draft the brief?
Not as part of this service. Brief research and drafting support are separate, and many firms use the index and preservation analysis to decide what the brief should contain before commissioning either.
Can you verify our existing brief's citations against the record?
Yes - that is cite verification and it pairs naturally with this service, since the record is already indexed.
Firms who send us this usually also send
This service
Send one and judge the output.
Record review and indexing at $500–2,000 per appeal, 1 to 2 weeks. No minimum, no scoping call, no onboarding cycle.