7.3

Evidence and Procedure

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INTRODUCTION

Evidence and procedure are related by the rules of court.

Rules of court are the procedures for trial. Rules may vary slightly in structure, but they will all have the following in common:

- They are accessed by index, but unfortunately the indexes vary greatly in quality. But there is nothing the researcher can do about that.

- They are arranged by general topics or subject matter. For example, the rules dealing with discovery are all collected together.

- Court rules are procedural. They exist to ensure that the trial process is fair and proper.

Of course, court rules may also be found online, but in that case the researcher must use a search query. (This is why even attorneys still like to use traditional printed versions of court rules. When using an index, browsing is a real advantage, and online court rules have no index.)

Court rules by private publishers contain research tools as well as the rules. For instance, there may be a listing of other relevant rules, or cases that have actually applied the rule itself. Use these tools to expand your research.

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Paralegal Perspective . . .

COURT RULES

It is important for a paralegal to identify which court a matter is in. One reason is so the captions on the pleadings and discovery documents can reflect the proper court. Another reason is so the paralegal knows which rules of procedure apply to the matter at hand. For instance, if the case is in the main trial level court in Colorado (the Colorado District Court), there are two sets of rules that could apply. The first is the broader Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure. These rules are the most critical and provide most of the procedural information needed, such as how long a defendant has to respond to a motion, etc. The second set of rules are the local procedural rules. In Colorado, as in all states, there are courts in almost every county. If the matter here was in the Colorado District Court, County of Denver, there are probably local rules for that specific court. These local rules may 'tweak' the broader rules of procedure, so they should also be checked when researching procedural issues.