Rule 8 Rules by Chief Judge

Each judicial district in Oklahoma (except Oklahoma County and Tulsa County) has a Chief Judge who can set up local rules for how the district court runs. These local rules have to fit within the bigger rules set by the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the Presiding Judge. In other words, a Chief Judge can add local details but can't create rules that conflict with what the higher courts already require.

Oklahoma County and Tulsa County work differently. Those two counties will follow uniform district court rules once those are put in place, instead of relying on separate local rules from their Chief Judge.

Whatever rules a Chief Judge does create must be made public. They get published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal and posted on the Supreme Court's website, oscn.net. This way, anyone involved in a case, including people without a lawyer, can look up the local rules that apply to their district.