Tuesday Tips for Legal Professionals: Turning Court Rules into Print Instructions (BCCA – Book of Authorities)

When you are preparing for an appeal, the Court of Appeal for BC is very clear about how your Book of Authorities must look under Civil Rule 27. The challenge is not the rules themselves – it is translating those requirements into a clean, print-ready PDF and an instruction set your print partner can follow without guesswork.

This post focuses only on the Book of Authorities and turns the Court’s expectations into practical, production-ready steps.

1. Start with the Court’s completion instructions for the Book of Authorities

Before you start assembling cases, pull up the Court’s “Paper Filing Completion Instructions – Book of Authorities.”

Build a simple checklist from that document and keep it with your internal precedent. As you go, confirm:

• Correct cover colour for your role (joint, appellant, respondent, etc.)

• Required contents and structure of the Book of Authorities

• Page numbering requirements

• Binding type and format

• Volume limits and labelling

• Tabs and dividers required

• Number of copies for filing and service

By the time you send a PDF for printing, you should already know you comply on paper.

2. Use complete authorities, not excerpts

For the Court of Appeal, the expectation is that each authority is reproduced in full, not just the headnote or selected paragraphs.

In practice:

• Download full decisions from an official source (e.g., court website or CanLII).

• Avoid trimming the decision down to a few pages unless the rules explicitly allow it.

• Use tabs, headings, or subtle markings (like vertical lines in the margin) to highlight key passages instead of cutting content out.

That way, the panel has the full context while still being guided to your key points.

3. Get page numbering and the Table of Contents in sync

For Books of Authorities, the Court expects:

• Sequential page numbering (or Bates numbering) across the entire book

• Page numbers at the top centre of the page

• A Table of Contents that matches those page or Bates numbers exactly

Good habits:

• Lock in your order of authorities first, then number the pages.

• After numbering, build or update the Table of Contents using the final numbers.

• Spot-check: pick a few random entries in the TOC and flip to the referenced page in the final PDF to make sure they match.

If the TOC and page numbers match in the PDF, they will match in the printed volume.

4. Translate cover, colour, and binding rules into clear print specs

The Court specifies cover colours based on who is filing (for example, joint, appellant, respondent), and expects Books of Authorities to be in booklet form, typically with Cerlox or similar plastic comb binding.

Turn that into simple, unambiguous print instructions, such as:

• “Book of Authorities – [Appellant/Respondent/Joint] – Court of Appeal for BC”

• “Cover colour: [as required for role] per BCCA Book of Authorities instructions.”

• “Double-sided printing”

• “Cerlox plastic comb binding in booklet form”

Your printer does not need the rule number; they need a plain-language version of what the rule requires.

5. Structure and label your authorities clearly

A well-structured Book of Authorities makes life easier for both counsel and the panel.

Best practices:

• List authorities in the Table of Contents with case name, citation, and starting page number.

• Ensure the order in the TOC matches the order in the physical book.

• Use clean, printed tabs with case names or short labels that match the TOC entries.

Your print request can simply say:

“Please add tabs for each authority, using the case names from the Table of Contents as tab labels.”

6. Watch legibility, margins, and formatting

Even if the content is correct, poor reproduction can make a Book of Authorities hard to use.

Before you send to print:

• Check that the text is large enough and dark enough to be easily read when printed.

• Make sure margins are sufficient so nothing disappears into the binding.

• Avoid heavy highlighting or underlining in the body of the authorities; if you need to draw attention to key passages, consider subtle vertical lines or notes in your factum instead.

If any authority is based on an older or low-quality scan, consider re-sourcing it from a better copy.

7. Specify copies for filing, service, and your own use

The rules and completion instructions set out the number of copies required for filing and service.

To avoid last-minute scrambling:

• Determine how many court copies, party copies, and office file copies you need.

• Spell that out clearly in your print order, for example:

“Please produce [X] copies total to meet Court of Appeal filing and service requirements (court, opposing parties, and our office file).”

Having a standard copy breakdown for your firm can make this step automatic on every appeal.

8. Let your printer be your second set of eyes

At CETTEC Printing, we work directly from the current Court of Appeal completion instructions for Books of Authorities. Before we print, we can:

• Check for sequential page numbering across the book (and volumes, if any)

• Confirm that the Table of Contents matches actual page numbers/Bates numbers

• Verify cover colours, labels, and binding type match the Court’s requirements

• Confirm that tabs and section breaks line up with your Table of Contents and list of authorities

If something doesn’t look right, we flag the print issue before we print so you aren’t discovering a problem after hundreds of pages are already bound.

If your firm is preparing a Book of Authorities for an upcoming appeal, consider sending your PDF and the Court’s completion instructions together to your print partner.

Converting those rules into concrete print directions is one of the simplest ways to avoid reprints, delays at the registry, and frustration for the panel reading your materials.