Rule 30.Right to Timely Review

Rule 30 is the shortest rule in the ruleset and one of the most unusual. It creates no procedure. It does not tell a party to do anything. It is addressed to the courts.

The rule directs that, to help ensure parties in a domestic relations action have their disputes timely resolved, courts must abide by the time limits imposed by Rules 43.1, 44.1, 45, 45.1, 47, 47.1, 47.2, 48 and 91.5.

What those nine rules have in common

Every one of them contains a deadline running against the court rather than a party. Rule 43.1 requires a ruling on a written stipulation within 21 days. Rule 44.1 and Rule 45 require the court to set a hearing or rule on a default or consent decree within 21 days of filing or lodging -- or within 81 days of service where the filing came early. Rules 47, 47.1, 47.2 and 48 each require a ruling within 21 days after a hearing concludes. Rule 45.1 sets an 81-day outer limit on a summary consent decree.

Scattered across the ruleset, those deadlines read like housekeeping. Rule 30 collects them and names them for what they are: a right to timely review.

Why it exists

Rule 30 arrived later than the rules it points to. It was added on an emergency basis in August 2023 and permanently adopted with amendments in December 2023, effective January 1, 2024 -- the same cycle that added or tightened several of the deadlines it lists. There is no counterpart in ordinary civil practice, where the pace of decision is left to the court's own management.