In June 2013, the JudicialConference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (a.k.a. the Standing Committee) approved a significantset of amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for publication andcomment. The proposed amendments affect Rules 1, 4, 6, 16, 26, 30, 31, 33, 34,36, 37, 55, 84, and the Appendix of Forms.
Anyone who is interested may submit written comments, and mayalso testify at a number of public hearings that are being held in the comingmonths (Washington, DC, on November 7, 2013; Phoenix, Arizona, on January 9,2014; and Dallas, Texas, on February 7, 2014).
The public comment period closeson February 15, 2014. Only after this comment period is complete will the CivilRules Advisory Committee decide whether—and with what further changes—to proceedwith these proposals. That decision is likely to occur during the spring of2014, with the Supreme Court ultimately signing off in the spring of 2015 (byMay 1, 2015 at the latest). Absent intervention by Congress, any changes would go into effect on December 1,2015.
More details about the comment and hearing process are availablehereand here.The draft of the proposed amendments are available here.(Note that these documents also include proposed amendments to theBankruptcy Rules, which are subject to the same comment period but with a different set of public hearings.)
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