Rule Text
(A) A request for a continuance will not be granted as a matter of course. Any motion for a continuance may be granted only by the assigned judge for good cause shown. All motions for continuance shall be signed by the party on whose behalf the motion is made, or contain a certificate of the movant's attorney, that the attorney's client has knowledge of and has approved the continuance.
(B) No continuance of an appeal scheduled for review by the Court en banc is permitted prior to the date of oral argument without approval of the Presiding Judge, or in the absence of the presiding judge, the duty judge. Continuances requested on the date of oral argument will be granted only upon a majority vote of the Court en banc.
Amendment history: Adopted by order of the Supreme Court, 1997 OK 130 , eff. November 1, 1997; Renumbered from former Rule 18 by order of the Supreme Court, 2006 OK 6 , eff. January 30, 2006. Amended by order of the Supreme Court, 2012 OK 19 , eff. March 6, 2012 ( superseded document available )
Plain-English Summary (for reference only — not a substitute for the rule text above)
This summary is not the rule. The rule text controls.
If you want to postpone a hearing in this court, you can't just ask and expect it to happen automatically. The judge assigned to your case has to agree there's a good reason for the delay before granting it. This means you need to explain why you need more time, and the judge will decide if that reason is good enough.
There's also a paperwork requirement. Whoever asks for the continuance has to sign the request themselves, or their lawyer has to confirm in writing that the client knows about the request and agrees to it. This stops lawyers from delaying cases without their clients' knowledge or approval.
If your case is being appealed and a panel of judges (not just one judge) is set to review it, the rules get stricter. You can't get a continuance before the day of oral argument unless the Presiding Judge approves it. If no Presiding Judge is available, the backup judge on duty can approve it instead. If you wait until the actual day of oral argument to ask for a continuance, it takes a majority vote of all the judges on the panel to grant it. This makes last-minute delays much harder to get for appeals.
