Rule 41.2.Status Conference and Transcript Preparation

Rule 41.2 tackles a familiar problem in criminal appeals: cases that stall for months or years because nobody is pushing the transcript and record forward. It answers that problem with a built-in check-in schedule. Within 120 days of sentencing, the court must hold a status conference — which can happen by phone or video — where counsel for both the state and the defendant confirm that the defendant has appellate counsel, that the transcript has been ordered, and who is holding the trial exhibits.

The rule backs that check-in with a deadline. If the court reporter has not filed the transcript within those same 120 days, the court must issue a show cause notice asking the reporter to explain the delay, and it can impose conditions to get the transcript moving. From there, the court keeps checking in roughly every 180 days, by phone or video unless it orders otherwise, until the motion for new trial is finally heard.

Every conference has to leave a record — either transcribed by a court reporter or memorialized in a written order if none is available — so there is a paper trail showing the case has not been forgotten. The rule places responsibility for tracking all this on the court itself, and it tells judges to give priority to the cases that have been sitting the longest.