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Idaho — Court Rules & Rules of Practice Guide

Last verified · Published by Michigan Legal Publishing Ltd. · Browse the Idaho rules

1. Court System Overview

Idaho courts: district courts (seven judicial districts; general jurisdiction — felonies, civil >$10,000) with a magistrate division (misdemeanors, preliminary felony proceedings, civil ≤$10,000, small claims, family, probate, juvenile); the Idaho Court of Appeals; and the Idaho Supreme Court. Idaho’s distinctive appellate routing: all appeals go to the Supreme Court, which assigns a share to the Court of Appeals; Court of Appeals decisions are reviewable by petition to the Supreme Court. Magistrate decisions are appealed first to the district court sitting as an appellate court. The Supreme Court promulgates all rules, published at isc.idaho.gov; the Idaho State Bar Board of Commissioners administers the bar rules.

2. The Ruleset Map

Idaho publishes a dozen standalone rulesets (per the Supreme Court’s rules index, which also carries the SRBA — Snake River Basin Adjudication — Rules of Procedure as an appendix):

Ruleset Abbreviation / scope
Idaho Rules of Civil Procedure I.R.C.P. — restyled eff. 7-1-2016 to match FRCP (verified)
Idaho Criminal Rules I.C.R.
Idaho Misdemeanor Criminal Rules I.M.C.R. — separate set for misdemeanor practice
Idaho Infraction Rules I.I.R. — infractions
Idaho Rules of Evidence I.R.E. (FRE-modeled; restyled adopted 3-26-2018, eff. 7-1-2018 — verified)
Idaho Appellate Rules I.A.R.
Idaho Rules of Family Law Procedure I.R.F.L.P. — standalone family set
Idaho Juvenile Rules I.J.R. — juvenile corrections + child protection
Idaho Rules on Small Claims Actions I.R.S.C.A. — small claims (≤$15,000 per Idaho Code § 1-2301 — raised from the old $5,000; attorneys barred from hearings, I.R.S.C.A. 8 — both verified)
Idaho Rules for Treatment Courts I.R.T.C. — problem-solving courts
Idaho Rules for Electronic Filing and Service I.R.E.F.S.
Idaho Court Administrative Rules I.C.A.R. (records, administration, cameras)
Idaho Bar Commission Rules (I.B.C.R.) + Idaho Rules of Professional Conduct (I.R.P.C.) Bar-administered (Supreme Court approval)
  • No separate probate rules — probate sits in the magistrate division under the I.R.C.P. and the Uniform Probate Code (Idaho Code Title 15) (verified: no probate ruleset on the Supreme Court’s rules index; probate/guardianship listed among magistrate-division matters; Title 15 is titled “Uniform Probate Code”).
  • No business court — no business/commercial docket appears on the courts’ site.
  • Local rules: limited; district-level administrative orders.

3. Civil Litigation Mechanics

  • Post-2016, Idaho civil procedure reads like the FRCP (restyled numbering; verified): answer 21 days (verified), Rule 12/56 practice federal-style.
  • Magistrates handle civil ≤$10,000 under the same I.R.C.P. (verified: I.C.A.R. 5 assigns civil actions up to $10,000 under Idaho Code § 1-2210; § 1-2208’s base assignment list is $5,000, extended by administrative rule); small claims (≤$15,000) is its own lawyer-free track under I.R.S.C.A. (Idaho Code § 1-2301), with a 30-day appeal heard as a trial de novo by a lawyer magistrate other than the one who entered judgment (Idaho Code § 1-2311; I.R.S.C.A. 15 — verified).
  • Family law cases use I.R.F.L.P., not I.R.C.P. — a fully separate procedural world (own discovery/motion rules).
  • Discovery: FRCP-style. Summary judgment (I.R.C.P. 56) tracks FRCP 56’s “no genuine dispute as to any material fact” standard and record-citation procedure, but keeps Idaho-specific timing: the motion must be filed at least 90 days before trial (or within 7 days of the trial-setting order, whichever is later), served at least 28 days before the hearing, with the opposition due 14 days and any reply 7 days before the hearing (I.R.C.P. 56(a)–(b), adopted March 1, 2016, effective July 1, 2016).

4. Criminal Practice Mechanics

  • Three criminal rulesets by severity: I.C.R. (felonies and general), I.M.C.R. (misdemeanors), I.I.R. (infractions) — check which applies before citing.
  • Path: magistrates take initial appearances/preliminary hearings; felonies bound over to district court. All felonies must be prosecuted by indictment or information (I.C.R. 7(a)); a felony defendant charged by complaint is entitled to a preliminary hearing “unless indicted by a grand jury” (I.C.R. 5.1(a)), and the information must be filed within 14 days after the magistrate’s order holding the defendant to answer (I.C.R. 7(f)). Grand juries are impaneled by a district judge only on the prosecuting attorney’s motion, “at such times as the public interest requires” (I.C.R. 6(b); grand-jury practice is governed by I.C.R. 6–6.8).
  • Speedy trial: statutory — unless good cause is shown, the charge must be dismissed if no indictment or information is filed within six months of arrest, or if trial does not begin within six months of arraignment (or of a misdemeanor plea) (Idaho Code § 19-3501).
  • Post-conviction: the Uniform Post-Conviction Procedure Act (Idaho Code §§ 19-4901 et seq.; civil-action model — a UPCPA petition is a new civil case) with a one-year window from the expiration of the time for appeal or the determination of an appeal (or of a proceeding following appeal), whichever is later (Idaho Code § 19-4902 — verified); I.C.R. 35 “Correcting or Reducing a Sentence” motions — a sentence illegal on the face of the record may be corrected at any time (I.C.R. 35(a)); a motion to correct a sentence imposed in an illegal manner or to reduce a sentence is due within 120 days of the judgment or of the order releasing retained jurisdiction (I.C.R. 35(b)).
  • Discovery: I.C.R. 16 request-based reciprocal regime (verified — written-request disclosure both ways, plus the prosecutor’s standing duty to disclose exculpatory material without request).

5. Evidence

  • Idaho Rules of Evidence — court-adopted (originally 1985), FRE-modeled, restyled effective July 1, 2018 (adopted March 26, 2018 — verified from the official I.R.E. pages); cited “I.R.E. 702.”
  • Experts: Idaho has declined to explicitly adopt Daubert — I.R.E. 702’s help-the-trier-of-fact standard with Idaho case law controls, though Idaho courts apply some Daubert-style factors (verified via Idaho State Bar evidence CLE materials [labeled bar source]).

6. Appellate Mechanics

  • One front door: every appeal is filed as an I.A.R. appeal to the Supreme Court (physically filed with the district court clerk — verified), which then keeps it or assigns it to the Court of Appeals (verified — official Court of Appeals procedures page; death-penalty, Industrial Commission, PUC, and original-jurisdiction cases cannot be assigned); petitions for review (I.A.R. 118, “Petition for Review by the Supreme Court” — verified) seek discretionary Supreme Court review of Court of Appeals decisions.
  • Two-tier magistrate appeals: magistrate → district court (appellate capacity) → then I.A.R. appeal — newcomers routinely misroute this.
  • Initiating (verified from I.A.R. 14): 42 days from the file-stamped judgment (civil and criminal); civil tolling by any timely judgment-affecting motion (except Rule 60/costs); criminal tolling only by motions filed within 14 days; rider (retained-jurisdiction) cases extend sentence appeals.
  • Idaho’s appellate courts enforce record/transcript request mechanics in the notice itself (I.A.R. 17 content requirements — verified: transcript designation (17(h)), additional clerk’s-record designation (17(i)), and certification that estimated transcript/record fees are paid (17(l))).

7. Rules of Professional Conduct

  • Idaho Rules of Professional Conduct (I.R.P.C.) — Model Rules-based; originally adopted November 1, 1986, and comprehensively revised (post-Ethics 2000) effective July 1, 2004 (verified from the official I.R.P.C. PDF), published by the Idaho State Bar (official PDF). Cited “I.R.P.C. 3.3.”
  • Bar governance (admission, PHV, licensing, discipline procedure) sits in the Idaho Bar Commission Rules (I.B.C.R.).

8. Attorney Discipline & Enforcement

Verified via the Idaho State Bar’s process documents and the I.B.C.R.:

  • Flow: grievance → Office of Bar Counsel (screening/investigation; respondent answers within 21 days, complainant rebuttal 14 days; clear-and-convincing standard; confidential) → review by a Professional Conduct Board panel (2 lawyers + 1 non-lawyer) → formal charges (public reprimand → disbarment range) recommended through the Board of Commissioners, tried in formal charge proceedings before Professional Conduct Board hearing committees (I.B.C.R. 502 Professional Conduct Board; 504 Bar Counsel; 511 Formal Charge Proceedings — verified from the I.B.C.R.) → Idaho Supreme Court final review (the Court retains ultimate authority over discipline per the I.B.C.R.).
  • Sanctions: I.B.C.R. 506 itemizes them — disbarment (Supreme Court only; no readmission application for five years), resignation in lieu of discipline (same effect as disbarment), suspension (up to five years; Supreme Court only), public censure (Supreme Court only; published in the Idaho Reports), public reprimand (Professional Conduct Board), probation, private reprimand (Bar Counsel only; kept in the Bar’s permanent file but not published), informal admonition (Bar Counsel only; the least severe tier), restitution, and costs (I.B.C.R. 506(a)–(j) — verified from the official I.B.C.R. PDF); sanctions under 506(c)–(f) may be withheld in whole or part on conditions (I.B.C.R. 507).
  • Discipline notices published by the Bar (The Advocate) and Supreme Court opinions.

9. Newcomer Orientation Notes

  • Magistrate division is where most Idahoans meet the courts — family, probate, misdemeanors, small claims all start there; appellate routing from magistrates is two-step.
  • Family practice has its own rules (I.R.F.L.P.) — don’t cite I.R.C.P. in a divorce.
  • Check which criminal ruleset applies (I.C.R. vs. I.M.C.R. vs. I.I.R.).
  • E-filing: statewide iCourt (File & Serve) under I.R.E.F.S. (verified — icourt.idaho.gov: File & Serve is Idaho’s statewide Tyler Technologies e-filing system; “electronic filing is required in most situations”).
  • Self-help: the Supreme Court’s Court Assistance Offices (CAO) statewide — local offices listed in all 44 counties — with forms for family/small claims/landlord-tenant/housing (verified at courtselfhelp.idaho.gov) — one of the better self-help networks.
  • Out-of-state counsel: PHV under I.B.C.R. 227 with local counsel, who must personally appear with the PHV attorney unless the trial judge excuses it; $625 fee to the Bar per admission, $125 of it passed to the Idaho Law Foundation’s pro bono program (I.B.C.R. 227(a)(4), per the Bar’s current official I.B.C.R. PDF; older copies showing $325 are out of date).

10. Sources & Verification

Sources (fetched 2026-08-28, full verification pass 2; 2026-08-27 sources re-fetched where cited):

Official — Idaho Supreme Court (isc.idaho.gov):

Official — Idaho Legislature (legislature.idaho.gov):

Official — Idaho State Bar (isb.idaho.gov):

Labeled secondary (fallback):

Sources fetched 2026-09-02 (flag-resolution pass 3):

  • Official — I.R.C.P. accordion page, Rule 56 (Summary Judgment): https://isc.idaho.gov/rules-procedure/ircp — confirmed the FRCP-style “no genuine dispute as to any material fact” standard, the 90-day/7-day filing window and 28/14/7-day briefing schedule, and the adoption/effective dates (March 1, 2016 / July 1, 2016); the former “case-law gloss” claim was reworded to the rule text.
  • Official — I.C.R. accordion page, Rules 5.1, 6–6.8 and 7: https://isc.idaho.gov/rules-procedure/icr — confirmed that all felonies are prosecuted by indictment or information (7(a)), the preliminary-hearing entitlement “unless indicted by a grand jury” (5.1(a)), the 14-day information deadline (7(f)), and that grand juries are impaneled on the prosecutor’s motion “at such times as the public interest requires” (6(b)); the “grand juries rare” frequency characterization was dropped.
  • Official — Idaho Bar Commission Rules PDF, Rules 506–507: https://isb.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/IBCR-acc.pdf — confirmed the full sanction list in Rule 506(a)–(j), including the private-reprimand tier (506(g), Bar Counsel only, unpublished) and informal admonition (506(h)), and withheld sanctions under Rule 507.

Sources fetched 2026-09-24 (claim-by-claim audit):

Not verified (flagged): none.