M E M O
TO: Joint Procedure Committee
FROM: Gerhard Raedeke
RE: Rules of Appellate Procedure
The Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure were revised, effective December 1, 1998. The revisions are mainly stylistic.
The most significant stylistic change made in the federal rules is the new practice of setting off enumerated items into subparts when feasible. By having enumerated items set off as separate items, a rule acts as a checklist for practioners to ensure they are complying with all the requirements of the rule. An additional stylistic change is the use of bullets () to ease the reading of a list when no citation to any individual item is likely.
In the material following are revisions to the North Dakota Rules of Appellate Procedure. The revisions follow the federal revision when North Dakota's rule tracks the federal rule. When North Dakota's rule does not track the federal rule, the revisions follow the stylistic format of the federal rules as much as possible.