Federal Court Rules Research Guide

• Local rules and internal operating procedures apply only in the individual courts which have adopted them.
• The U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal sometimes replace specific Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure with their own local variants.
• In the U.S. District Courts local rules supplement, rather than replace, the rules of general applicability.
• "[L]ocal rules governing practice and procedure [...] must be consistent with both Acts of Congress and the Federal Rules of Practice and Procedure, and may only be prescribed after notice and an opportunity for public comment. A court's authority to prescribe local rules is governed by both statute and the Federal Rules of Practice and Procedure. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 2071(a)-(b); Fed. R. App. P. 47; Fed. R. Bankr. P. 9029; Fed. R. Civ. P. 83; Fed. R. Crim. P. 57." [Source]

Current:

• Free Web: Section 205 of the E-Government Act of 2002 (Pub. L. No. 107-347) requires that federal courts post local rules on their websites. Use the Court Website Links directory to locate the website of a specific federal court.
• Westlaw: Rules of each of the Courts of Appeals can be found with the USCA (scroll down to the list of circuits, located between Titles 28 and 29).  
• Lexis: Rules of the Courts of Appeals can be found in USCS - Federal Rules Annotated (scroll to list of circuits towards bottom of page).  
• Print: Federal Local Court Rules (3d ed. 2001-; now canceled). [KF8820 .A2 2001.]
  Volume 7 of this set contains local rules and internal operating procedures (IOPs) of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, organized in numeric order by circuit except that the rules of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals appear at the beginning. The set provides few annotations and no indexes to the rules; however, at the beginning of each court's rules there is a detailed "Table of Rules" which substitutes for an index.

Historic:

• Federal Local Court Rules (2d ed. 1995-2001). [KF8820 .A2 1995.]
• Federal Local Court Rules (1st ed. 1964-1995). [Not available in the Georgetown Law Library, but is available at the Library of Congress.]

Current:

• Free Web: Section 205 of the E-Government Act of 2002 (Pub. L. No. 107-347) requires that federal courts post local rules on their websites. Use the Court Website Links directory to locate the website of a specific federal court.
• Westlaw: To find the rules of a federal district or bankruptcy court, visit the Federal Local Court Rules page and select a state or territory, then a court.
• Lexis: To find the rules of a federal district or bankruptcy court from the main page, select the "State" tab (in the Explore Content box), choose your state, and click the Table of Contents icon () beside "state and federal court rules" (or equivalent), which will be located under the "Statutes & Legislation" heading.  You can now scroll to the specific court to browse its rules or add them as a search filter.
• Print: Federal Local Court Rules (3d ed. 2001- 2009; now canceled). [KF8820 .A2 2001.] Volumes 1 through 6 of this set contain local rules of the federal district courts, but not the federal bankruptcy courts, organized in alphabetical order first by state and then by District Court within each state. The set provides few annotations and no indexes to the rules; however, at the beginning of each court's rules there is a detailed "Table of Rules" which substitutes for an index.

Historic:

• Federal Local Court Rules (2d ed. 1995-2001). [KF8820 .A2 1995.]
• Federal Local Court Rules (1st ed. 1964-1995). [Not available in the Georgetown Law Library, but is available at the Library of Congress.]