Rules of appellate procedure

Those rules which control the nature and conduct of an appeal. They may be door closing (for example, "the notice of appeal shall be filed with the clerk of the lower court within thirty days of the date of the entry of the judgment appealed from"), discretionary (for example, "upon a showing of excusable neglect, the lower court may extend the time for filing the notice of appeal for a period not to exceed thirty days"), technical (for example, "the composition of the record on appeal shall include the original papers and exhibits on file, the transcript of proceedings, and a certified copy of the docket entries..."), process oriented (for example, requirements for giving copies of all papers filed to all other parties), economic (filing fees, assessments of legal costs, punitive (penalties for infractions such as frivolous appeals), or informative (the duties of the clerk's office, for example).