Rule 81-2. Form of Petition

(a) A petition for certification shall be filed as one document with a single pagination scheme that starts on the first page of the petition and continues throughout. The page numbers shall be centered on the bottom of the page and shall be written as ''Page X of XX'' (e.g., Page 1 of 33 . . . Page 7 of 33 . . . Page 33 of 33). The petition must contain the following sections in the order indicated here:

(1) A statement of the questions presented for review, expressed in the terms and circumstances of the case but without unnecessary detail.

(2) A statement of the basis for certification identifying the specific reasons why the Appellate Court should allow the extraordinary relief of certification. These reasons may include but are not limited to the following:

(A) The court below has decided a question of substance not theretofore determined by the Supreme Court or the Appellate Court or has decided it in a way probably not in accord with applicable decisions of the Supreme Court or the Appellate Court.

(B) The decision under review is in conflict with other decisions of the court below.

(C) The court below has so far departed from the accepted and usual course of judicial proceedings, or has so far sanctioned such a departure by any other court, as to call for an exercise of the Appellate Court's supervision.

(D) A question of great public importance is involved. (3) A summary of the case containing the facts material to the consideration of the questions presented, reciting the disposition of the matter in the trial court, and describing specifically how the trial court decided the questions presented for review in the petition.

(4) A concise argument amplifying the reasons relied upon to support the petition. No separate memorandum of law in support of the petition will be accepted by the appellate clerk.

(5) An appendix containing a table of contents, the operative complaint, all briefs filed by all parties, the opinion or order of the trial court sought to be reviewed, a copy of the order on any motion, other than a motion for extension of time, which would stay or extend the time period for filing the petition, and a list of all parties to the appeal in the trial court with the names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, and, if applicable, the juris numbers of their counsel.

(6) A certification that: (1) a copy has been delivered to each other counsel of record in accordance with the provisions of Section 62-7, and (2) that the petition complies with the word count requirement of subsection (b) of this section.

(b) Except as otherwise ordered, petitions shall not exceed 4000 words. The word count is exclusive of the case caption, signature block of counsel of record, certifications and appendix. Petitions, including footnotes, shall be typed in a 12 point serif font. Section captions shall be typed in a 14 point serif font. A list of serif fonts can be found in the guidelines published on the Judicial Branch website. Margins shall be 1 and 1/2 inches on all sides. All text must be left aligned. Line spacing can be between 1.3x and 1.5x and must be uniform throughout, including the body of the document, footnotes and block quotes. Bold face or italic emphasis tools shall be used, not underlining.

Committee Notes

(P.B. 1978-1997, Sec. 4142.1.) (Amended July 23, 1998, to take effect Jan. 1, 1999; amended Jan. 17, 2002, to take effect April 15, 2002; amended May 15, 2003, to take effect Jan. 1, 2004; amended July 11, 2012, to take effect Jan. 1, 2013; amended Sept. 16, 2015, to take effect Jan. 1, 2016; amended July 23, 2019, to take effect Jan. 1, 2020; amended July 19, 2022, to take effect Jan. 1, 2023; amended June 27, 2023, to take effect Jan. 1, 2024; amended July 15, 2025, to take effect Jan. 1, 2026.) HISTORY—2026: Prior to 2026, the introductory paragraph to subsection (a) provided: ''A petition for certification shall contain the following sections in the order indicated here.'' In addition, what were the last two sentences of subsection