Rule 2-206 Effective date of rules

When a new court policy gets approved, people need enough time to adjust before it actually takes effect. That's the point of this rule.

Under this rule, any new policy from the Council normally starts on either May 1 or November 1, whichever date comes first after the policy is approved. This gives courts, attorneys, and others affected by the change time to update how they do things before the rule becomes binding.

The Council can choose a different start date if needed, and there's a separate rule (2-205) that covers some exceptions. But unless one of those situations applies, people can count on new rules starting on one of these two fixed dates each year.