MEMO
TO: Joint Procedure Committee
FROM: Mike Hagburg
DATE: January 9, 2009
RE: Rule 40, N.D.R.Civ.P., Assignment of Cases for Trial
Staff has prepared amendments to Rule 40 based on the federal form and style amendments. The amendments are intended make the rule more easily understood and to make style and terminology consistent throughout the rules. The amendments also aim to modernize the rule, removing references to obsolete authority and practices.
Fed.R.Civ.P. 40 provides little guidance for form and style amendments to Rule 40 because it has little content. Moreover, the Committee has spent quite a bit of time working on Rule 40 in recent years so the rule has been well reviewed. Therefore, only minor form amendments to Rule 40 are proposed.
The proposed amendments to Rule 40 are attached along with a copy of the amendments
to the federal rule.