Posted: Friday, January 4, 2008

The Supreme Court has promulgated changes to the General Rules of Practice, effective January 1, 2008. Essentially, the court adopted the proposals submitted by the advisory committee except for the changes related to the expedited child support process.  Several comments were submitted that raised issues regarding the expedited process, and the court has directed the state court child support staff to resolve those issues and report back to the committee.

In addition, the court has directed that the state court administration interpreter program work with the Judicial Council to address recording of interpreted testimony.

The rule changes adopted were:

1. Amendments to the Code of Ethics Enforcement Procedure for Rule 114 neutrals as recommended by the ADR Review Board.
2. Extension of the procedure for streamlining uncontested marriage dissolution proceedings for marriages without children, adopted in 2003 as Minn. Gen. R. Prac. 302.01, to apply to marriages with children as well. Note that as a result of this change, Form 12 of Title IV of the rules will need to be revised.  In addition, Form 12 and all of the forms in Title IV of the rules are by this order removed from the rules themselves, and instead maintained by the State Court Administrator.  This will allow the maintenance of these forms on an ongoing basis without requiring review by the advisory committee or formal orders of the court to implement. Numerous cross references to the forms in the rules have also been modified.
3. Amendment of Rule 803 to make its language more precisely describe the duties of jury commissioners.  These changes are essentially technical and minor in nature.