About RulesofCivilProcedure.com

Last updated: July 22, 2026

RulesofCivilProcedure.com is a free, independent reference for the rules that govern civil litigation in the United States — every state, the District of Columbia, and the federal courts, in one place, with the same careful treatment given to each one. Our goal is simple: make the rules of civil procedure easy to find, easy to read, and easy to understand, without a paywall, a login, or a sales pitch in the way.

Why we built this

Civil procedure decides outcomes as often as substantive law does. A missed deadline, a misunderstood motion practice, or a rule read in the wrong version can end a case before its merits are ever heard — and the people who most need these rules (self-represented litigants, small-firm practitioners far from a law library, students learning a new jurisdiction) are often the ones with the least convenient access to them. Official sources are scattered across court websites, legislative databases, and paid research services that summarize rules differently state to state. We built one site that treats every jurisdiction's rules the same way: verbatim, sourced, dated, and explained.

What you will find on every rule page

Each rule or section gets its own page, built to the same standard regardless of which state it comes from:

• the full, verbatim text of the rule, reproduced exactly as published by the official source, including its subdivisions and cross-references;
• a concise one-sentence summary and a longer plain-English explanation, written in our own original words;
• frequently asked questions that address how the rule works in practice;
• amendment history and the dates the rule was last amended and last verified against the official source;
• official commentary — a reporter's note, committee comment, or advisory committee note — reproduced verbatim wherever the rulemaking body itself publishes one;
• links to related rules within the same jurisdiction, so you can move between connected provisions without leaving the page; and
• a direct link to the official source, so you can always confirm the text yourself.

How we build each jurisdiction

Every state follows the same process. We start from the official compilation of that state's rules — the state's own courts, supreme court rules office, or legislature, not a secondary summary. We reconcile our table of contents against every heading in that source so no rule is silently skipped, and we verify the reproduced text character by character against the source before anything is published. Where a rule has been amended, repealed, or renumbered, we say so, rather than quietly showing only the current version. Original commentary — the plain-English summaries and FAQs — is written fresh for this site; we do not copy language from treatises, bar-association guides, or other copyrighted secondary sources, and any resemblance to a state's own official committee commentary is because we reproduce that commentary verbatim and label it as such, never because we have paraphrased someone else's copyrighted analysis.

Current coverage

As of this writing, 51 jurisdictions are live, including the federal courts — browse the full, current list from the home page map or the directory in the footer of every page. This is an ongoing project: state rules change on their own schedule, and we add new jurisdictions and revisit existing ones as time and research allow. A jurisdiction that is not yet built is marked “coming soon” rather than left off the site entirely, so you always know what is and is not covered yet.

Editorial independence

RulesofCivilProcedure.com is an independent, privately operated reference site. We are not a law firm, a bar association, a court, a government agency, or a lawyer-referral service, and nothing here should be mistaken for an official publication of any state or of the federal judiciary. No jurisdiction, vendor, or advertiser pays for placement, priority, or favorable treatment on this site, and our editorial decisions about which rules to add or how to explain them are made independently of any commercial relationship.

How this site is supported

Building and verifying rule text across every state takes real, ongoing work, and we want the site to stay free and open to everyone. This site is supported by advertising. We use Google Analytics to understand how the site is used, and we run non-intrusive advertising through Mediavine to help cover the cost of maintaining and expanding this site. Our Privacy Policy explains what that means for cookies and your choices. Advertising does not influence which rules we cover or how we describe them.

Corrections and feedback

We work hard to get the text and the dates right, but this is a large, moving body of material maintained by one small team, and mistakes are possible. If you find a rule that looks outdated, a citation that does not match the official source, or anything else that seems wrong, please get in touch. Include the jurisdiction and rule number if you can — we read every message and fix confirmed errors as quickly as we can.

Who this is for

Self-represented litigants, paralegals, law students, journalists, and attorneys working outside their home jurisdiction all use this site as a fast, reliable starting point. Whoever you are, please remember that this site provides legal information, not legal advice — see our Disclaimer for what that distinction means for you.

Contact

Questions, corrections, or feedback of any kind are welcome — see our Contact page for how to reach us. That inbox is not monitored for anything urgent or time-sensitive — if you have a real legal deadline approaching, contact a licensed attorney or your court's clerk directly rather than waiting on a reply from us.