This guide covers important sources for finding federal court rules as well as materials that help in the interpretation of those rules (i.e., federal rules' legislative history, cases interpreting federal rules, secondary sources) and federal procedural forms.
For a quick list of sources where you can find the text of federal court rules themselves (without detailed descriptions of the sources, and without information on secondary sources, forms, or case law) see our Quick Reference Chart, below
For information on researching state court rules, see our State Research Guides.
Court rules prescribe procedures for practice in the courts. They answer such questions as:
There are two basic types of federal court rules:
There are also separate rules for federal courts with special jurisdiction, such as military courts, the United States Tax Court, and the United States Court of International Trade.
This chart provides a quick guide to the most convenient sources of federal court rules in the Georgetown Law Library, on the Web, and on Lexis and Westlaw. This is not a comprehensive list of sources. For detailed guidance, refer to one of the other pages of this guide (refer to the Contents, top left).
Rules | Quick Locations |
---|---|
U.S. Supreme Court |
|
Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure |
|
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure |
|
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure |
|
Federal Rules of Evidence |
|
Local Rules of Federal District Courts, Bankruptcy Courts, and Courts of Appeals |
|
Supplemental Rules for Admiralty or Maritime Claims and Asset Forfeiture Actions |
|
Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure |
|
Rules of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims |
|
Rules of the U.S. Court of International Trade |
|
Rules of the U.S. Tax Court |
|
Rules of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces |
|
Rules of the [Military] Courts of Criminal Appeals |
|
Rules for Courts-Martial and Rules of Military Evidence |
|
Created 1/2006 (SB)
Updated 8/2021 (MK)