Short answer. You have forty-five days from receipt of the appellant's brief to file seven copies of your own legibly typewritten, mimeographed, or printed brief with the Court of Appeals, with proof that two copies were served on the appellant. Missing this window without seeking an extension in advance for good cause can affect how the appeal proceeds.

What the law says

Within forty-five days from receipt of the appellant's brief, the appellee shall file with the court seven copies of his legibly typewritten, mimeographed or printed brief, with proof of service of two copies thereof upon the appellant.

Rule 44, Section 8 — Appellee' s brief. Read the full provision →

The forty-five day window

The appellee's obligation to respond in an ordinary appeal is triggered by receipt of the appellant's brief, not by the docketing of the case. Section 8 requires that within forty-five days from receipt of the appellant's brief, the appellee shall file with the court seven copies of his legibly typewritten, mimeographed or printed brief. Nothing in the rule allows this period to run from any earlier notice or from the filing of the record on appeal.

Format and proof of service

The brief must be prepared in one of the formats the rule names — typewritten, mimeographed, or printed — and filed in seven copies, with proof of service of two copies thereof upon the appellant. Serving the appellant and documenting that service is as much a part of compliance as filing the brief itself, since a brief filed without the required proof of service is incomplete under the rule's own terms.

Why the deadline deserves respect

Because Rule 44 elsewhere treats missed deadlines in the briefing process as grounds that can affect the appeal's fate, an appellee should calendar the forty-five days from the date the appellant's brief is actually received, not from any earlier estimate, and should seek an extension in advance — under the good-cause standard the Rules impose — rather than let the period lapse.

What the appellee's brief accomplishes

Filing within the period preserves the appellee's chance to answer the assigned errors on their own terms, rather than leaving the appellant's brief as the only substantive account of the case before the Court of Appeals. It also sets up the appellant's optional twenty-day reply brief under Section 9, since that period only begins once the appellee's brief has actually been received, so a late or unfiled appellee's brief can leave the appeal's remaining timeline uncertain.

What Section 8 does not excuse

The obligation binds only the appellee — it does not fall on the appellant, who has already discharged the corresponding duty by filing the main brief. Section 8 does not itself specify the consequence of a missed forty-five day period; that is governed by other provisions of Rule 44 dealing with an appellee's failure to file, which can allow the case to proceed to submission without the benefit of the appellee's brief at all. Filing seven copies without the required proof that two were served on the appellant does not satisfy the section either, since the proof-of-service requirement is written into the same sentence as the filing obligation, not treated as a separate afterthought.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.