Rule 1 Scope of Rules

Advisory Committee Historical Note

Effective July 1, 2020, Rule 1 was amended to emphasize that the parties share responsibility with the court to employ the rules so as to secure the just, speedy and inexpensive resolution of every action. XX So. 3d XX (Miss. __).

Advisory Committee Notes

These rules are to be applied as liberally to civil actions as is judicially feasible, whether in actions at law or in equity. However, nothing in the rules should be interpreted as abridging or modifying the traditional separations of jurisdiction between the law courts and equity courts in Mississippi.

The salient provision of Rule 1 is the statement that “These rules shall be construed, administered, and employed by the court and the parties to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action.” There probably is no provision in these rules more important than this mandate; it reflects the spirit in which the rules were conceived and written and in which they should be interpreted. The primary purpose of procedural rules is to promote the ends of justice; these rules reflect the view that this goal can best be accomplished by the establishment of a single form of action, known as a “civil action,” thereby uniting the procedures in law and equity through a simplified procedure that minimizes technicalities and places considerable discretion in the trial judge for construing the rules in a manner that will secure their objectives.

[Advisory Committee Note adopted effective July 1, 2014; amended effective July 1, 2020.]