FEDERAL RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.The rules governing civil actions in the U.S. district courts.
— Abbr. Fed. R. Civ. P.; FRCP. [Cases: Federal Civil Procedure 31–44. C.J.S. Evidence § 7.]
“Chief Justice Hughes in 1935 appointed fourteen lawyers and law teachers as the Advisory
Committee for the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, with William D. Mitchell, former Attorney
General, as chairman, and Charles E. Clark, then dean of the Yale Law School, as reporter, to
recommend a draft of rules uniting law and equity. The committee proposed a system of rules that
was approved by the Court with certain changes. In accordance with the Enabling Act, the rules
were submitted to Congress for its acquiescence and, Congress having taken no exception to them,
they became effective September 16, 1938.
“The rules thus produced bear the unmistakable imprint of the reporter, Charles E. Clark, and
represent the largest single accomplishment in American civil procedure since the Field Code of
- Although they were not perfect and have been amended many times, experience with them
has on the whole been satisfactory, and more than half of the states have adopted them in their
entirety or in large part.” Fleming James, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr. & John Leubsdorf, Civil
Procedure § 1.8, at 24–25 (5th ed. 2001).[Blacks Law 8th]