The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 Revised Rules will go into effect on July 1st. The Court’s adopting order states:
[T]he revised Rules shall govern all proceedings in cases commenced after that date and, to the extent feasible and just, cases then pending.
As a practical matter, the new rules will apply to pending cases in all but the rarest situations. According to the Clerk’s Comments, many of the changes simply codify existing practice, or clear up ambiguities in the current rules. These changes are not really changes at all, and will therefore not have an appreciable effect on Court practices.
Other changes create simple additional duties for practitioners: filers will need to email copies of the brief to the other parties (Rule 29.3), corporate entities will need to immediately update the Clerk upon changes to corporate disclosure statements (Rule 29.6), and merits-stage motions will need to include a statement describing the position of other parties (Rule 21.1). A post-change respondent might complain about emailing the brief in opposition to a pre-change petitioner who did not offer a similar courtesy, but that does not rise to the level of injustice.
The remaining changes are expansive, rather than restrictive, and are therefore not likely to cause problems. Respondents in support of the petition will have a later due date (Rule 12.6), petition stage repliers will have more time before distribution (Rule 15.5), indigent parties will have fewer filing requirements (Rule 39.1), and amici will be less restricted when adding signatories (Rule 37.2(a) and Rule 37.3(b)).
The due date change for respondents in support, as well as the lengthening of the distribution period, might cause a few headaches moving from June into July. If the twentieth day after docketing the petition falls on June 25th, and the thirtieth day falls on July 5th, should the respondent in support comply with the old rules and file on the earlier date, or rely on the new rules, provide notice on the earlier date, and file on the later date? If a brief in opposition is filed on June 20th, will the petitioner need to beat the distribution date following 10 days or 14 days?
As we at Cockle Legal Briefs prepare for the revised rules, we have spoken with the Court about potential transitional problems moving into July 1st. Our plan is to: 1) recognize and evaluate any potential problem as soon as possible; 2) contact the Court with specific questions as they arise; and 3) if we are not sure about how the changes will affect a filing, be risk averse and follow the more restrictive rule.