AMENDMENTS TO PROCEDURAL RULES
SET TO TAKE EFFECT MARCH 1
MIKE HAGBURG
Attorney at Law
Effective March 1, the Supreme Court will
adopt amendments to the Rules of Civil
Procedure, Criminal Procedure, Appellate
Procedure, and Evidence.
The explanatory note of Civil Procedure Rule
39.1 on changing the location of a hearing,
proceeding, or trial has been amended to list
the statutes that were superseded by the rule
and the statutes that were considered in the
course of drafting the rule.
Rule 39.1 was intended to supersede the
venue statutes that existed at the time of its
adoption in 2002, and its explanatory note
states: “The rule incorporates and supersedes
statutory provisions governing change of
venue.” The specific statutes superseded were
not listed in the rule when it was adopted
and the March 1 amendment corrects this
omission.
Criminal Procedure Rule 37 on appeal to
district court from municipal court has been
amended to provide details on the district
court’s scope of review and action in an
appeal from municipal court. The new rule
language will specify, “The district court,
at any time after an appeal is taken, may:
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THE GAVEL
(1) hear a motion to dismiss the appeal, (2)
conduct a trial anew and affirm, reverse,
modify, or vacate the municipal court
judgment or order, (3) correct an illegal
sentence or a sentence imposed in an illegal
manner; and (4) order judgment to be
entered in the district court.”
Extensive form and style amendments will
become part of the model form for Appendix
(A), which lists conditions for a sentence
to probation and deferred or suspended
sentences. The amendments were designed
to improve the language and organization
of the form so that it can be more
easily understood, especially by criminal
defendants.
The appellate rule on identity protection,
Rule 14, was amended to specify that privacy
protections in Rule of Court 3.4, in the North
Dakota Century Code, and the North Dakota
Constitution must be complied with on appeal
in all filed documents, at oral argument,
and in opinions. Attorneys should keep in
mind that under Rule 3.4(b), “[a] party or
nonparty making a filing with the court is
solely responsible for ensuring that protected
information does not appear on the filing.”
Appellate Procedure Rule 21 on writs was
amended to clarify a response to a writ petition
is allowed only when requested by the court.
In changes to the Rules of Appellate
Procedure, the explanatory notes of Rule 2.2
on termination of parental rights and Rule 4
on when an appeal must be taken have been
amended to make it clear all appeals from
orders terminating parental rights must be
expedited, including appeals under N.D.C.C.
ch. 14-15.1 on child relinquishment. Rule of Evidence 615 on excluding witnesses
was amended to replace the word “statute” with
“law” in subdivision (d). The amendment was
made in response to Marsy’s Law, N.D. Const.
Art. I, § 25, which provides that crime victims
have a right to be present at all proceedings
to which they are connected. Under the
amendment, Rule 615 would not authorize
the exclusion of victims from applicable
proceedings.
Appellate Procedure Rule 10 governing the
record on appeal was amended to require
a party to designate how many electronic
or paper copies of the transcript are to be
prepared and to identify who is to receive
which type of copy. The amendments also
require electronic transcript copies to be in
portable document format (PDF). In an earlier action, the Court amended
Administrative Rule 39 to exempt small
claims court cases under N.D.C.C. ch.
27-08.1 and traffic cases under N.D.C.C. §
39-06.1-03 from the rule’s requirement that
all district court proceedings be recorded. The
amendments to Rule 39 took effect Dec. 1,
2019.