Rule 13 Service and filing of papers

When you have written motions, notices, or other similar documents in a criminal case, you need to give copies to everyone involved in the case. The way you deliver these papers follows the same rules used for civil cases in magistrate court. So if you already know how service works for a civil case there, the same steps apply here.

The same idea applies to filing papers with the court. Once you serve a document on the other parties, you still need to file it with the court itself. Again, you follow the same filing process used in civil cases in magistrate court. This rule basically saves space by pointing to the civil rules instead of repeating them, so criminal cases and civil cases handle paperwork the same way.