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Changelog

Recent updates and improvements to Court Rules Network.

v2.89.0 September 11, 2026
  • Fifteen rules of the Northern Mariana Islands that were never published are now on the site. The court numbers its sub-rules two ways — Rule 28-1 with a hyphen and Rule 28.1 with a dot, five lines apart in the same document — and only the hyphenated ones were being read, so the dotted ones were dropped. The civil rules gain eleven, among them Rule 23.1 on derivative actions brought by shareholders, Rule 44.1 on determining foreign law, Rule 45.1 on notice to appear in lieu of a subpoena, Rule 71.1 on condemnation of property, and Rule 82.1 on absence of counsel. The Supreme Court rules gain Rule 26.1, the corporate disclosure statement, and Rule 28.1 on cross-appeals
  • The Commonwealth’s small claims procedure is published again. Rule 83 reads “[Reserved]” in the current civil rules, with the court’s own note that the former Rule 83 remains in effect until Small Claims Rules are promulgated. They have not been, so that former rule is still the law governing claims of $5,000 or less — how a case is filed, service at least five business days before the hearing, an informal trial not bound by the rules of procedure or evidence, and appeal to the Superior Court within thirty days. It is now carried at Rule 83 where a reader will look for it
v2.88.0 September 11, 2026
  • Three corrections to rules that were already here but shown wrongly. Pa.R.Crim.P. 600, Prompt Trial — the rule that governs when a criminal defendant must be brought to trial, and one of the most-cited in Pennsylvania practice — was published under the title “[Rescinded]” even though its full text was here and in force. So were Orphans’ Court Rule 1.3, the definitions that the rest of that set turns on, and Rule 14.2, the petition to adjudicate incapacity and appoint a guardian. The text on each page was always right; the heading above it was a stale placeholder, and it is now the rule’s own title
  • Two rules of the Northern Mariana Islands Supreme Court are now published for the first time. The court issues Titles VIII and X as separate documents, and the master rules PDF prints their numbers as reserved — so Rule 52, the Rules of Judicial Council, appeared here as reserved when the court had filled it, and Rule 80, Indigent Defense, was missing altogether. Rule 80 is the substantial one: the right to appointed counsel and to a guardian ad litem, how indigence is determined, who receives appointments, the duties of appointed counsel, and the rates at which they are paid
v2.87.0 September 10, 2026
  • What a Virginia traffic ticket actually costs is now published — Part Three B, the Uniform Fine Schedule, with the statute, the fine, the processing fee and the total for each of 252 offences. Rule 3B:2 is the schedule itself: for any offence listed, a driver may enter a written appearance, waiver of court hearing and plea of guilty and pay without appearing, and for one not listed a court hearing is required. It is applied uniformly throughout the Commonwealth and a clerk or magistrate may not impose a different amount, though it does not restrict what a judge may impose where there is a hearing. The offences run in nine groups — speed, other moving offences, equipment, parking and stopping, trucks and towing, pedestrians, miscellaneous, bicycles, and motor carrier offences under the federal regulations
  • Part Three C is the non-traffic counterpart and the larger of the two at 337 offences, drawn from across the Code and the Administrative Code: alcoholic beverage control, forest fires and burning, state parks, marine resources and the fisheries regulations, hunting and wildlife, boating safety, and the HOT lane restrictions. Three limits stated before the schedule matter more than any single entry — prepayment may not be made where injury to the person is involved even if the offence is listed; a Title 28.2 violation may be prepaid only if there has been no other in the past 12 months; and a hunting, trapping or inland fish violation only if there has been none in three years
  • Virginia’s Parts are now complete at twenty-two rule sets. These two were the last, and they were held back rather than published wrong: their substance is a multi-column table, and the tool that reads the rest of the Rules of Court renders a table by padding it with spaces, which cannot tell a wrapped description from a new row. Run through it, one row read “failure of slow moving 46.2-804(1) $100 $51 $151 traffic to keep right” — a fine attached to the wrong offence. They are now read from the position of every word on the page instead, and checked against the schedule’s own arithmetic: fine plus processing fee equals total on all 420 entries that print three plain amounts, bar five where the Court’s published schedule does not add up. Those five are reproduced exactly as printed
v2.86.0 September 10, 2026
  • The Rules Regulating The Florida Bar are now published in full — nineteen more chapters, 376 rules, taking Florida to thirty rule sets. Chapter 4, the Rules of Professional Conduct, has been here since August; these are everything else the Bar operates under. Chapter 1 is the general one, and the one most lawyers need: the composition of the Bar and its membership classifications, retirement, delinquency and reinstatement, the right to inventory a departed lawyer’s files, and appearance by a non-Florida lawyer in a Florida court. The rest of it is the Board of Governors, the sections and divisions, membership fees, and the procedure by which the Bar amends these very rules
  • Chapter 3 is the disciplinary code, 40 rules and the counterpart to the conduct rules themselves: who has jurisdiction and over whom, the disciplinary agencies from the Supreme Court down to the grievance committees, what constitutes misconduct and minor misconduct, discipline imposed by a foreign or federal jurisdiction and the choice of law, the types of discipline available, and the procedures — complaint processing, grievance committee action, the referee’s report, review by the Supreme Court, and reinstatement. Chapter 5 is only two rules but they are the two that end careers: trust accounts and the trust accounting records and procedures a lawyer must keep
  • The largest of them is chapter 6 on legal specialization at 143 rules — the standards for certification and recertification in each certified area, the Board of Legal Specialization and Education, and the certification committees. The remainder cover the programmes a practitioner meets occasionally and needs exactly once: the Clients’ Security Fund, lawyer referral services, group and prepaid legal services plans, the unlicensed practice of law and its injunctive and contempt procedures, the law school practice programme, emeritus and legal aid practitioners, grievance mediation, advertising review, foreign legal consultants, authorized house counsel, military legal assistance and the military spouse rule, professionalism, and the Florida Registered Paralegal programme with its own registration requirements and complaint procedure
v2.85.0 September 10, 2026
  • Virginia’s Part Six is now complete — two more rule sets, 67 rules, taking Virginia to twenty sets. The Organization and Government of the Virginia State Bar is the larger at 62 paragraphs, and its heart is the disciplinary system: Paragraph 13 runs to 32 subdivisions covering the definitions and the burden of proof, the authority of the courts, the Disciplinary Board and the district committees, Bar Counsel and the Clerk of the Disciplinary System, the processing of complaints, the limited right to discovery, and Board proceedings in each of their forms — certification, appeal, sanction determination, a first offender plea, a guilty plea, impairment, and discipline imposed in another jurisdiction — then reinstatement, resignation, consent to revocation, the duties of a disbarred or suspended respondent, and the confidentiality of disciplinary records
  • The rest of that Section is the Bar itself — its membership and the classes of membership, the officers, the Council and its election, dues and disbursements, and the procedure for promulgating legal ethics and unauthorized practice opinions. The last division covers administrative suspension for failing to complete the professionalism course or continuing legal education, professional corporations, the third year student rule, the Clients’ Protection Fund, the MCLE rules, trust account maintenance, pro bono reporting and the Attorney Wellness Fund
  • The Virginia Unauthorized Practice Rules are also now published — Part Six, Section I, five rules on what counts as practising law without a licence. Rule 1 is the prohibition: no non-lawyer shall engage in the practice of law in the Commonwealth or in any manner hold himself or herself out as authorized to do so. Rules 3 and 4 are the ones practitioners reach for — the exceptions available to non-lawyers and foreign lawyers, and the exclusions, the actions that do not constitute the practice of law at all — and Rule 5 carries the Comments, including the definition of “tribunal” the other rules turn on
v2.84.0 September 10, 2026
  • The Connecticut Probate Court Rules of Procedure are now published — 358 sections in 55 rules, the 2026 edition. These come from the Office of the Probate Court Administrator rather than the Practice Book, and they are what actually governs a probate matter: Section 2.2 makes them mandatory in the Probate Courts and expressly inapplicable to appeals from probate in the Superior Court. The opening rules are the ones every filing touches — definitions, the clerk’s duties and the uniform numbering system, who is a party and who may participate, self-representation and appearance by an attorney, probate fees and when the filing fee is due, filing requirements, notice of hearing, counting time periods, and continuances
  • Rule 22 is the eFiling regime — registration for the system, who may obtain eFiling access to an existing matter, and when eFiling is mandatory. The later rules cover the specific case types: decedents’ estates and accountings, conservatorships, guardianships of adults with intellectual disability, children’s matters including removal of a parent as guardian and termination of parental rights, adoption, and commitment and treatment proceedings. The last group is procedural in a different sense — the conduct of hearings and evidence, ex parte communication, orders without notice and hearing, alternative remedies, enforcement against a fiduciary who fails to perform, and news media coverage. Each rule’s amendment history is carried with its sections
v2.83.0 September 10, 2026
  • Connecticut’s Code of Judicial Conduct is now published — 41 rules, and this is the state’s only judicial-conduct source. It is the 2011 rewrite, adopted by the judges of the Superior Court on June 21, 2010, the judges of the Appellate Court on July 15 and the justices of the Supreme Court on July 1, and based on the Model Code the American Bar Association adopted in 2007. Four canons: a judge shall uphold and promote the independence, integrity and impartiality of the judiciary; shall perform the duties of judicial office impartially, competently and diligently; shall conduct personal and extrajudicial activities so as to minimize the risk of conflict; and shall not engage in political or campaign activity inconsistent with judicial independence
  • Canon 2 is the working half of the Code, sixteen rules on the performance of judicial office — giving it precedence, impartiality and fairness, bias, prejudice and harassment, competence and diligence, ensuring the right to be heard, the responsibility to decide, ex parte communications, and disqualification, the longest rule in the Code. Canon 3’s fifteen rules cover appearances before governmental bodies, testifying as a character witness, fiduciary and arbitral appointments, the practice of law, financial and business activities, and the acceptance and reporting of gifts, loans, bequests, benefits or other things of value. The Code’s own Preamble, Scope, Terminology and Application sections are here too — the Terminology defines the terms the rules turn on, and the Application states which judicial officers each canon reaches
v2.82.0 September 10, 2026
  • Washington’s limited-license professions now have their conduct rules on the site — four rule sets, 316 rules, taking Washington to twenty-six sets. Washington licenses two kinds of non-lawyer to do legal work, and both are governed by their own ethics code and their own discipline system. The Limited Practice Officer Rules of Professional Conduct govern the closing agents who select, prepare and complete documents in real estate and personal property transactions, and the Preamble puts the standard plainly: an LPO receives a limited license to practice law and is held to the same standard of care as a lawyer when performing the services that license authorizes. Rule 1.9 makes an LPO’s powers and duties personal and non-delegable to anyone who is not an LPO
  • The discipline systems are here in full. The Rules for Enforcement of Limited Practice Officer Conduct are 118 rules in sixteen titles: any person or entity may file a grievance, and by filing consents to its disclosure to the officer complained of. The Supreme Court holds exclusive responsibility for the system, and Title 13 sets the sanctions — revocation, suspension, reprimand and admonition. The Rules for Enforcement of Limited License Legal Technician Conduct mirror them, 118 rules adopted as an interim rule in January 2016 and permanently that October
  • The Limited License Legal Technician Rules of Professional Conduct are now published — 65 rules following the same structure as the lawyers’ code, from the client-LLLT relationship through advocacy, law firms and associations, and maintaining the integrity of the profession. They open with the Fundamental Principles of Professional Conduct for an LLLT and the Preamble on an LLLT’s responsibilities. Rule 5.9 is the one with no lawyer counterpart, setting the terms on which an LLLT and a lawyer may share fees or form a partnership. Washington no longer admits new LLLTs, but these rules govern those already licensed and have not been repealed
v2.81.0 September 10, 2026
  • Virginia’s Canons of Judicial Conduct are now published — 49 standards, and this is the Commonwealth’s only judicial-conduct source. Part Six, Section III of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Virginia was reorganised into three broad canons, each followed by lettered standards that are themselves binding: a judge must be impartial, must uphold the public trust, and must promote the efficient and effective delivery of justice. The Preamble sets the test as three questions a judge should ask of any action or inaction — will it threaten the judge’s impartiality, will it harm public trust in the fairness of the judiciary, will it harm the efficient and effective delivery of justice. Among the standards: recusal and disqualification, the longest in the set, ex parte communications, using the prestige of office to advance private interests, social media, service as a fiduciary, fund raising, the limits on a judge’s practice of law, and the disciplinary responsibilities a judge owes when another judge or a lawyer falls short. A Terminology section defines bias, de minimis, domestic partner and economic interest, and sets out which judicial officers the Canons do not reach — judges pro tempore, retired and senior judges, substitute judges and special justices. They are cited by standard, as the Canons cite themselves, so the rule numbers read 1(A) through 3(I)
v2.80.0 September 10, 2026
  • Kansas’s statutory procedure is now complete — five more rule sets, 1,173 sections, taking Kansas from twenty-two sets to twenty-seven. Kansas procedure is statutory at its core, and these are the codes that were missing. The Kansas Probate Code is the largest at 843 sections in 37 articles: probate procedure proper, where 59-2201 requires every application to be by verified petition; the estate articles from intestate succession and wills through letters testamentary, bonds, inventory, the classification and payment of demands, and distribution; adoption, including the consent provisions at 59-2129; care and treatment for persons with mental illness, the sexually violent predator act and the crisis intervention act; the simplified estates and informal administration acts; and transfer-on-death, where 59-3501 lets real estate be titled in TOD form by recording a deed
  • Kansas guardianship and conservatorship was recodified effective January 1, 2026, and the new act is here. Every section of the old article — 59-3050 and the rest — now reads “Repealed.” The current law is cited in Kansas’s comma form: 59-30,141 is the basis for appointing a guardian for an adult and 59-30,160 for a conservator, with separate tracks for minors and adults, emergency and temporary appointments, the guardian’s and conservator’s plans and reports, protective arrangements as an alternative to guardianship, and interstate transfer and registration of orders
  • The two Kansas courts most people actually meet. The Small Claims Procedure Act is the lawyer-free court: 61-2707 provides that the trial is to the court and no party may be represented by an attorney prior to judgment, and the limit is $10,000 under 61-2703, raised from $4,000 in 2024. The Code of Civil Procedure for Limited Actions is Kansas’s volume practice — collections, landlord-tenant, evictions — 103 sections in fourteen articles, and what makes it the limited track is discovery: ten interrogatories and ten requests for admission as of right, but a deposition only on a motion the court grants
  • Both of Kansas’s juvenile codes are now published. The Revised Kansas Code for Care of Children runs a child-in-need-of-care case from the officer taking a child into custody, through ex parte protective custody and temporary custody orders, to adjudication and disposition — and then through permanency: the permanency hearing, the request for termination of parental rights, the factors to be considered in terminating them, custody for adoption, and the appointment of a permanent custodian. The Revised Kansas Juvenile Justice Code covers detention and its criteria, the prohibition on holding a juvenile in jail, prosecution as an adult and extended jurisdiction juvenile prosecution at 38-2347, adjudication, and sentencing — including the placement matrix at 38-2369 that sets placement by the offense committed
v2.79.0 September 10, 2026
  • Alabama is now complete — thirteen more rule sets, 175 rules, taking the state from ten sets to twenty-three, which is every rule set the Alabama judiciary publishes in its own rules-of-court library. The largest addition is the Alabama Rules of Disciplinary Procedure, 42 rules covering the whole of lawyer discipline: the Disciplinary Board and Commission, the General Counsel and local grievance committees, the types of discipline and the Prediscipline Diversion Program at Rule 8.1, formal charges, hearings, interim and summary suspension, disbarment and discipline by consent, reciprocal discipline, and reinstatement at Rule 28. Alongside it, the Alabama Standards for Imposing Lawyer Discipline answer the question the rules do not — what sanction fits what misconduct — organized by the duty violated: duties owed to clients, to the public, to the legal system and to the profession, with separate standards for prior discipline orders and for aggravation and mitigation
  • Alabama’s judicial conduct sources are now on the site, and there were none before. The Alabama Canons of Judicial Ethics are seven canons whose titles are themselves the rules — a judge should uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary, should avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety, should perform the duties of the office impartially and diligently — and the Preamble records that the first Code of Legal Ethics in the United States was adopted by the Alabama State Bar Association in 1887. Enforcement is two sets: the Rules of Procedure of the Judicial Inquiry Commission, 20 rules on how a complaint against a judge is investigated, and the Rules of Procedure of the Court of the Judiciary, the 27 rules of the court that tries judges, adopted in 1974 under the Judicial Article. A separate five-rule set governs the appeal from that court to the Supreme Court of Alabama
  • Everything about being a lawyer in Alabama is now here too. The Rules Governing Admission to the Alabama State Bar cover registration as a law student, the application, admission with and without examination, the Committee on Character and Fitness, the Board of Bar Examiners and the examination itself, and the admission of foreign attorneys pro hac vice and as authorized house counsel. Also new: the MCLE rules, the rules on legal specialization and who may hold themselves out as a specialist, and the Client Security Fund rules, by which a client whose lawyer took their money applies for reimbursement
  • And three sets that exist nowhere else. The Standards Relating to Delay Reduction are the time standards by which Alabama measures whether its courts are current, and they are concrete: 90% of all circuit civil cases should be concluded within 18 months of filing and 95% within 24 months. They also include the Attorney Calendar Conflict Resolution Order, which decides which court takes precedence when a lawyer is set in two at once. The Alabama Rules for Using Videotape Equipment to Record Court Proceedings govern the courtrooms where the record is a videotape rather than a transcript — the court abbreviates them “Ala.R.U.V.E.” itself — and the rules on privilege in collaborative law matters supply the one thing the Alabama Uniform Collaborative Law Act left out
  • A fix in the bar admission rules worth naming: the Alabama judiciary publishes Rule VI as two documents, Rule VI(A) on the Board of Bar Examiners and Rule VI(B) on the bar examination. Because a rule number with parentheses in it was not recognized, Rule VI was absent and its text had been appended to Rule V, on the Committee on Character and Fitness. Both halves of Rule VI are now their own rules and Rule V holds only its own text
  • Thirty-six rule titles in the Maryland Rules, Title 18, on judges and judicial appointees cited the ABA Model Code as “Aba Rule 2.5”. They now read “ABA Rule 2.5”
v2.78.0 September 9, 2026
  • California’s two statutory procedure codes are now published — 4,731 sections, the largest single addition this site has taken, and the part of California practice the Rules of Court only overlay. The Code of Civil Procedure is 3,365 sections in four parts and holds most of what a civil litigator reaches for daily: the summons and service, the demurrer, the anti-SLAPP special motion to strike at section 425.16, summary judgment at section 437c, trial, judgment and its enforcement, and the appeal. The Civil Discovery Act runs from section 2016.010 — depositions, interrogatories, inspection demands, requests for admission and the motions to compel that follow each — and small claims practice begins at section 116.110. Part 3 covers the special proceedings: writs of mandate and prohibition, unlawful detainer, arbitration and eminent domain
  • Part 2 of the Penal Code is California’s criminal procedure, and all 1,366 sections of it are now here. It runs the whole course of a case: the time within which a prosecution must commence, complaints before magistrates, arrest and how it is made, the examination and commitment of the accused, grand jury proceedings, the accusatory pleading and demurrer, arraignment and plea, discovery from section 1054, trial by jury and the verdict, the new trial motion, judgment and sentence, and the appeal. Also here: diversion and deferred entry of judgment, electronic monitoring, and the writs of habeas corpus and error coram nobis
  • Five article headings in the California Evidence Code had been displaying in raw capitals — “ARTICLE 3.5. Lawyer Referral Service-Client Privilege” and four others, covering 29 sections. They now read like every other heading on the site
v2.77.0 September 9, 2026
  • Two California Rules of Court that had never been published are now on the site. Rule 3.546 governs the termination of a coordination proceeding, and Rule 4.553 sets the qualifications for appointed counsel on a claim under Penal Code section 1473(e). Both were absent because of how the Judicial Council’s own index links to them — those two entries capitalize “Rule” where every other entry does not — so the site had been skipping them since California first shipped
  • The California Standards of Judicial Administration are now published — 41 standards, current as of September 1, 2025, taking California to twelve rule sets. The Standards are the Judicial Council’s recommendations rather than mandates, which is exactly why practitioners read them: they are where the Council states what good practice looks like. Standard 2.1 sets out the case management and delay reduction principles and Standard 2.2 the trial court case disposition time goals; Standards 2.10 and 2.11 cover determining whether an interpreter is needed and instructing participants in an interpreted proceeding. Also here: complex civil litigation and appearance by telephone, adult collaborative treatment courts, vacatur relief under Penal Code section 236.14, the court’s use of risk and needs assessments at sentencing, traffic infraction procedures, and seventeen standards on judicial administration itself. They are cited “Cal. Stds. Jud. Admin.” rather than as rules of court, and the site labels them that way
v2.76.0 September 9, 2026
  • Eleven more Colorado rule sets — 194 rules, taking Colorado from twelve sets to twenty-three. Two of them had no coverage at all and both matter: the Colorado Code of Judicial Conduct, the state’s only judicial-conduct source, 38 rules under four canons — Rule 1.1 requires a judge convicted of a crime to notify the appropriate authority in writing within ten days, and Canon 2 runs to sixteen rules on the performance of judicial office including ex parte communications and disqualification — and the Colorado Rules of Judicial Discipline, 48 rules in six parts running from the request for evaluation of judicial conduct through investigation, the formal hearing before special masters, dispositions and sanctions, and the special tribunal that sits when the judge is a justice of the Supreme Court
  • Also new: the courts most Coloradans actually use. The Rules of Procedure for Small Claims Courts are C.R.C.P. 501 to 521, 21 rules covering commencement, service, counterclaims, discovery, trial and — at Rule 511 — the provision that a magistrate hears the case and there is no jury trial. The Rules for Traffic Infractions and the Rules for Civil Infractions govern the noncriminal offenses Colorado handles as civil matters, and the Rules for County Court Traffic Violations Bureaus establish a bureau in every county court in the state so a minor traffic case can be disposed of without appearing before a judge. The Rules for Magistrates govern the selection, assignment and conduct of magistrates in both the district and county courts, with a separate rule on reviewing each court’s magistrate orders
  • And four Colorado specialties. The Uniform Local Rules for All State Water Court Divisions are the procedure of a specialized bench that exists in few other states, adjudicating water rights across the state’s river basins — including Rule 12 on the decennial abandonment lists by which unused conditional rights are identified. The Rules Governing Public Access to Information and Records set out what the public may see of the judiciary and when a judge may authorize cameras in a courtroom. The Rules of Procedure for Judicial Bypass of Parental Notification Requirements govern the proceeding by which a minor may obtain a waiver, and provide that no fees or costs may be charged and that the record and proceedings are confidential. And the Supreme Court Library Rules, C.R.C.P. 261 to 264, are four short rules that have been on the books a very long time — one of them requires silence in the library
v2.75.0 September 9, 2026
  • Five more Northern Mariana Islands rule sets — 87 rules, taking the Commonwealth to twenty sets. The Code of Judicial Conduct is the largest and had no coverage at all: 38 rules under four canons, adopted as permanent on September 9, 2025 and superseding the prior code. Rule 1.1 opens plainly — a judge shall comply with all applicable laws, including this Code — and Canon 2 runs to sixteen rules on the performance of judicial office, among them ex parte communications and the disqualification provisions under 1 CMC § 3308. Canon 3 covers extrajudicial activities in fifteen rules and Canon 4 political and campaign activity, separately for judges standing in retention elections and for those who become candidates for nonjudicial office
  • Also new: the Commonwealth’s two treatment courts and its language-access code. The Drug Court Policies and Procedures govern the territory’s first treatment court, established in 2015 and revised effective December 17, 2025; Section 4 is the eligibility and entrance protocol, and the consequences are kept deliberately separate — termination, suspension, conditional discharge and successful completion each get their own section. The Mental Health Court Docket was added within the Superior Court’s general docket in 2021 and expressly reaches eligible veterans and servicemembers seeking treatment in lieu of incarceration; its longest section, Section 3, sets out the duties of every member of the docket team, which is what makes a treatment court work. The Interpreter and Translator Code of Conduct is fourteen canons on competence, integrity, impartiality, confidentiality and accuracy — the rules governing language access in a jurisdiction where it is routine rather than exceptional
  • And how a Commonwealth judge may campaign to keep the bench. The Rules Governing Judicial Retention Election Conduct set out nine sections, beginning with the basic guideline of honesty: no justice or judge should knowingly misrepresent a fact, and each is personally responsible for the truth and propriety of retention election literature. Section 2 should be read with the Supreme Court’s own 2002 order, printed alongside these rules, holding that after Republican Party of Minnesota v. White the clause forbidding a candidate from stating views on disputed legal or political issues may not be enforced — while the rest of Section 2 stays in force, and recusal may still be required
v2.74.0 September 9, 2026
v2.73.0 September 9, 2026
  • Pennsylvania’s two remaining rule sets are now published — 266 rules, taking Pennsylvania to eleven sets. The Minor Court Civil Rules (246 Pa. Code, 165 rules) are civil practice before the magisterial district judges, the court most Pennsylvania litigants actually meet. Chapter 300 is the civil action itself; Chapter 500 is the action to recover possession of real property, which is the landlord-tenant proceeding; Chapter 1000 is the appeal to the court of common pleas, and Chapter 1200 emergency protective relief — who may seek it, the hearing, the order and its duration. The Rules of Judicial Administration (201 Pa. Code, 101 rules) are how the Pennsylvania judiciary administers itself, and several are consulted far more often than that description suggests: Rule 1910 governs broadcasting, recording and photography in the courtroom, Rule 1990 is the application to waive fees and costs in forma pauperis, Rule 1901 is prompt disposition and the termination of inactive cases, and Chapter 2 carries reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities and the courts’ language access plans. Also here: the Judicial Council of Pennsylvania, the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, the assignment of judges, the uniform rules for court reporting and transcripts, and the custody of exhibits
  • Twenty-one of these 266 rules have no text because the court rescinded, reserved or renumbered them, including the whole of the Rules of Judicial Administration’s Chapter 50. They are published as such rather than left out: a rule that was rescinded is something a reader needs to be told, and an empty page is not the same as a missing one
v2.72.0 September 9, 2026
  • Washington’s courts of limited jurisdiction are now covered — twelve new rule sets and 351 rules, taking Washington to twenty-two sets. The district and municipal courts hear most Washington cases and had no coverage at all: the Civil Rules for Courts of Limited Jurisdiction (82 rules in twelve titles) and the Criminal Rules (76 in nine) are the procedure in those courts, the Infraction Rules are how a traffic ticket is actually contested, and the Rules for Appeal of Decisions of Courts of Limited Jurisdiction are the route from there to the superior court. Also new, on the superior court side: the Civil Commitment Rules, 35 rules on involuntary commitment, whose own Introduction records that the Involuntary Treatment Act largely superseded the former Mental Proceedings Rules; the Civil Arbitration Rules, Washington’s mandatory arbitration track under RCW 7.06, including the trial de novo by which a party escapes an award; the Special Proceedings Rules — Criminal, which apply only in capital cases; the Guardian ad Litem Rules; the Discipline Rules for Judges, by which a decision of the Commission on Judicial Conduct reaches the Supreme Court; and the administrative rules for both court levels. The Special Proceedings Rules are a curiosity worth reading: only ten survive, still numbered in the pre-1967 style with a trailing “W”, and the set opens with the court’s own explanation that adopting the federal rules’ numbering made it necessary to remove the rest
v2.71.0 September 9, 2026
  • Two rules that were missing from Ohio sets already on the site are now published. Ohio prints its rule headings in capitals, and two documents each print exactly one heading in ordinary title case — so the site had been skipping them. App.R. 26 is the more consequential: it governs applications for reconsideration, for en banc consideration, and — in division (B) — the application for reopening, which is how a defendant in Ohio raises a claim that appellate counsel was ineffective, and one of the most-used rules in Ohio appellate practice. Its text had been filed as part of Rule 25’s notes. Civ.R. 65.2, on civil protection order forms, was likewise absent
  • Three new Ohio rule sets — 538 rules, taking Ohio to ten sets. The Rules of Superintendence are the administrative code every Ohio court runs on, 256 rules in fourteen sections: case management and time standards, dispute resolution, court records and public access, interpretive services, and the specialized dockets — Rule 7.41 establishes the commercial docket, with its own program judges. The Supreme Court Rules of Practice, 131 rules as amended effective May 1, 2025, are how a case is actually filed and argued in the Supreme Court of Ohio, with a section for each route in — appeals of right, jurisdictional appeals, certified conflicts, certified questions of state law from federal courts, administrative-agency appeals, death-penalty appeals and original actions — then the record, briefs, oral argument and judgment. The Rules for the Government of the Bar cover everything about being an Ohio lawyer: Rule I admission, Rule V the disciplinary procedure at 28 sections, Rule VI registration, Rule VII the unauthorized practice of law, Rule VIII the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection and Rule X continuing legal education. They are published by section, the way Ohio cites them — “Gov.Bar R. V, Sec. 12”
v2.70.0 September 9, 2026
  • Ten more Parts of the Rules of Supreme Court of Virginia — 103 rules, taking Virginia from seven rule sets to seventeen. The most consequential is Part Four, Virginia’s discovery rules: Rule 4:1 carries the general provisions governing discovery, with Rule 4:5 depositions on oral examination, Rule 4:8 interrogatories, Rules 4:9 and 4:9A production of documents and electronically stored information from parties and from non-parties, Rule 4:11 requests for admission and Rule 4:12 sanctions for failure to make discovery. Rule 4:0 sets its reach: civil cases in the circuit courts, and proceedings for separate maintenance, divorce or annulment, eminent domain, and habeas corpus or coram nobis. Three Parts cover the district courts, which hear most Virginia cases — Part Seven A in general, Part Seven B civil and Part Seven C criminal and traffic, whose Rule 7C:5 discovery provision is markedly narrower than the circuit courts’ — and Part Eight the juvenile and domestic relations district courts, where Rule 8:6 states the roles of counsel and of guardians ad litem when representing children. Also new: Part One A on foreign attorneys, including reciprocity admission without examination and the pro hac vice rule; Part Two A on appeals under the Administrative Process Act; Part Nine, the judicial performance evaluation program, whose Rule 9:2 makes the evaluations confidential except for reports to the General Assembly; Part Ten, a single rule letting the Chief Justice open Virginia to out-of-state lawyers providing pro bono services after a major disaster; and Part Eleven on public access to the records of the Virginia Judiciary