A number of amendments and additions to Washington’s court and practice rules, including changes to the Rules of Civil Procedure (CR), were adopted by the Supreme Court on June 2 and went into effect on September 1.

The changes also include amendments or additions to the General Rules (GR), Superior Court Criminal Rules (CrR), Civil Rules for Courts of Limited Jurisdiction (CRLJ), Criminal Rules for Courts of Limited Jurisdiction (CrRLJ), and the rules governing Admission to Practice (APR), Enforcement of Lawyer Conduct (ELC), Appeal of Decisions of Courts of Limited Jurisdiction (RALJ) and Appellate Procedure (RAP). A complete compilation of the rule changes is printed in the Supreme Court’s July 5, 2005 advance sheet, 154 Wn.2d 1101--1155.

Many of the rule changes, particularly the CR amendments, are the result of the work of the Washington State Bar Association’s Court Rules and Procedures Committee in 2004 under Chair David Swartling. Many of the CR amendments were adopted to conform CR 11, CR 50, CR 52 and CR 59 with the federal rules. After considering the issue, the committee did not recommend statewide discovery limits, opting to leave it to county courts to adopt local rules (see above story). Many other amendments were cosmetic or served to update the rules. For example, CR 5(h), “Service of Papers by Telegraph,” was rescinded and effectively replaced by a new subsection, CR 5(b)(7), “Service by Other Means.”