Several Non-Time Computation Amendments to FRCP Included among Changes Approved by the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court approved amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure on March 26, 2009. Although it is well known that those amendments included the so-called time computation amendments, there were also several non-time computation amendments that were approved, including the following:

- Rule 13(f) was abrogated.
- Rule 15(a) will be amended to permit amendment as a matter of course within 21 days of service of a motion under Rule 12(b), (e), or (f) or 21 days after a responsive pleading has been filed, whichever is earlier. Thus, the right to amend will no longer be extinguished upon the filing of a responsive pleading.
- Rule 48 was amended to add jury polling.
- Rule 81 was amended, inter alia, to expand the definition of the term "state" to include any commonwealth or territory of the United States.

The amendments also propose creating a new rule, FRCP Rule 62.1, that adopts a procedure for dealing with motions that a district court lacks the authority to grant due to a pending appeal.

Visit http://www.uscourts.gov/rules/index2.html#supct0309 for the full text of these and all of the approved rule changes.