RULE 77. DISTRICT COURTS AND CLERKS
Effective Date: 3/1/2011
(a) When Court Is Open. Every district court is considered always open for filing any paper, issuing and returning process, making a motion, or entering an order.
(b) Place for Trial and Other Acts. Every trial on the merits must be conducted in open court and, so far as convenient, in a regular courtroom. Any other act or proceeding may be done or conducted by a judge elsewhere, without the attendance of the clerk or other court officials.
(c) Clerk's Orders. Subject to the court's power to suspend, alter, or rescind the clerk's action for cause, the clerk may: (1) issue process; and (2) act on any other matter that does not require the court's action.
(d) [Transferred to Rule 58(b)].
Rule 77 was amended, effective March 1, 1990; March 1, 1999; March 1, 2000; March 1, 2002; March 1, 2011.
Subdivision (b) was amended, effective March 1, 2002, to eliminate the phrase addressing judicial acts or proceedings outside the district. See N.D.R.Civ.P. 39.1.
Subdivision (c) was amended, effective March 1, 1990. The amendment is technical in nature and no substantive change is intended.
Subdivision (d) was transferred to Rule 58(b), effective March 1, 2000.
Rule 77 was amended, effective March 1, 2011, in response to the December 1, 2007, revision of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The language and organization of the rule were changed to make the rule more easily understood and to make style and terminology consistent throughout the rules.
SOURCES: Joint Procedure Committee Minutes of January 28-29, 2010, page 22; September 28-29, 2000, pages 3-7; September 24-25, 1998, page 16; April 30-May 1, 1998, pages 12-13; April 20, 1989, page 2; December 3, 1987, page 11; January 17-18, 1980, pages 9-10; Fed.R.Civ.P. 77.
STATUTES AFFECTED:
SUPERSEDED: N.D.C.C. § 27-05-07.
CROSS REFERENCE: N.D.R.Civ.P. 39.1 (Change in Location of a Hearing, Proceeding, or Trial; Change of Venue); N.D.R.App.P. 4(Appeal When Taken).