§ 912.Duty of Clerk Upon Receiving Certified Copy of Final Judgment Or Order of Reviewing Court

This section is the administrative closing step of an appeal, making sure the trial court's own record reflects what happened above it. Once the reviewing court finally determines the appeal, its clerk remits a certified copy of the judgment or order — and of any accompanying opinion — down to the trial court.

The trial court's clerk then has three tasks. First, file the certified copy. Second, if the appeal was from a judgment, attach that copy to the judgment roll, the official compilation of documents that makes up the case's judgment record. Third, enter a note stating whether the judgment or order appealed from was affirmed, reversed, or modified, both in the margin of the original entry of that judgment or order and in the register of actions, the court's running log of case events.

These bookkeeping steps matter beyond mere formality: anyone later examining the trial court file needs to be able to tell, at a glance, whether the ruling on file is still good law in the case or has been changed by the reviewing court.