Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

Restyled Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Go Into Effect Today

Download associated file: Restyled Fed R Civ P.pdf 

Restyling the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is like wrapping drapes around nude statutes or painting abs on the Venus de Milo. Nothing substantive changes but someone prefers the look. The new look — the text of the restyled Rules effective December 1, 2007 — is attached.

It is difficult to overstate the magnitude of the transaction costs that this restyling will cost clients. Every single rule has been rewritten, and innumerable internal numbering changes have been made. Henceforth, much, if not most, research be done twice — once using the old numbering, once using the new, or once using the new words and once using the old. Simply revising my Sanctions book to take into account merely the numbering and language changes took more than $25,000 worth of billable time. At least no client had to bear that. All clients will bear scores of millions in the future, in bills for essential but purely duplicative research from lawyers around the country. Why do many litigants flee federal court?

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