Group XI: General Provisions · Last amended 2017 · Last verified July 14, 2026
This rule differs from the federal rule, as amended in 2007, by substituting the phrase “Chief Judge in the promulgation orders” for “Supreme Court.” Also, the statutory reference to the United States Code and section (b) of the federal rule are omitted as inapplicable.
Rule 86(a) answers a question that comes up every time the Superior Court adopts or amends a civil rule: does the new version reach cases already underway? The Chief Judge sets the effective date in the promulgation order, and from that date forward the rule or amendment governs any newly filed action.
Pending cases are covered too, unless one of two things is true — the Chief Judge's promulgation order says otherwise, or the court handling a particular case decides that applying the new rule there would be infeasible or would work an injustice. That second exception gives a judge room to protect a party who relied on the old procedure, without freezing the rest of the docket under outdated rules while the change works its way through every open file.
Rule 86(b), which in the federal rule addresses a United States Code citation, is marked [Omitted] here because that reference does not apply to a District of Columbia court.
At the time the Chief Judge specifies in the promulgation order adopting or amending the rule.
Generally yes. Rule 86(a)(2) extends new rules to pending actions unless the promulgation order specifies otherwise or the court finds that applying the amendment in that particular action would be infeasible or work an injustice.
The court presiding over that particular action makes that determination case by case, not the parties themselves.
Because the corresponding federal provision addresses a statutory citation and a reference to the Supreme Court's rulemaking role that do not apply to a District of Columbia trial court, so the drafters left the section number in place with no substantive text.
Not automatically. The default under Rule 86 is that a new or amended rule applies to pending cases too, and only the Chief Judge's order or a court's finding of infeasibility or injustice changes that.