TO: Joint Procedure Committee
FROM: Andy Forward
DATE: March 30, 2010
RE: Rule 8.8, N.D.R.Ct., Alternative Dispute Resolution
Staff has prepared amendments to Rule 8.8 based on the time computation amendments made to the federal rules. The principal simplifying innovation is to count all days, including intermediate weekends and holidays, in computing time periods under the procedural rules. Under the previous rules, intermediate weekends and holidays were omitted when computing short periods but included when computing longer periods. Under the amended rules, intermediate weekends and holidays are counted regardless of the length of the specified period.
To further simplify time-counting, the federal advisory committees proposed changing most periods of less than 30 days to multiples of 7 days. The advisory committees adopted 7, 14, 21, and 28-day periods when possible, so that deadlines will usually fall on weekdays.
In subdivision (b), line 34, the time period to file a Rule 8.8 statement was changed from 15 to 21 days before the initial pretrial conference.
Some form and style amendments are also proposed.
The proposed amendments to Rule 8.8 are attached.