South Dakota Rules of Civil Procedure
98 rules across 11 parts · 97 active
South Dakota’s Rules of Procedure in Circuit Courts are codified as “SDCL” (Chapter 15-6), originally promulgated by the South Dakota Supreme Court under its constitutional rulemaking authority and since amended by both the Court and the Legislature. Browse the full set below, with verbatim rule text and a plain-English summary for every rule.
Part I. Scope of Chapter — One Form of Action
Cited as SDCL § · 2 active rules
Part II. Commencement of Action — Service of Process, Pleadings, Motions and Orders
Cited as SDCL § · 4 active rules
Part III. Pleadings and Motions
Cited as SDCL § · 10 active rules
- 15-6-7 Pleadings Allowed — Form of Motions
- 15-6-8 General Rules of Pleading
- 15-6-9 Pleading Special Matters
- 15-6-10 Form of Pleadings
- 15-6-11 Signing of Pleadings, Motions, and Other Papers — Representations to Court — Sanctions
- 15-6-12 Defenses and Objections
- 15-6-13 Counterclaim and Cross-Claim
- 15-6-14 Third-Party Practice
- 15-6-15 Amended and Supplemental Pleadings
- 15-6-16 Pretrial Procedure — Formulating Issues
Part IV. Parties
Cited as SDCL § · 12 active rules
- 15-6-17 Parties Plaintiff and Defendant — Capacity
- 15-6-18 Joinder of Claims and Remedies
- 15-6-19 Joinder of Persons Needed for Just Adjudication
- 15-6-20 Permissive Joinder of Parties
- 15-6-21 Misjoinder and Nonjoinder of Parties
- 15-6-22 Interpleader
- 15-6-23 Class Actions
- 15-6-23.1 Derivative Actions by Unincorporated Associations
- 15-6-23.2 Actions Relating to Unincorporated Associations
- 15-6-24 Intervention
- 15-6-25 Substitution of Parties
- 15-6-25.1 Naming of Dismissed or Dropped Parties
Part V. Discovery
Cited as SDCL § · 18 active rules
- 15-6-26 Discovery Pending Action
- 15-6-27 Depositions Before Action or Pending Appeal
- 15-6-28 Persons Before Whom Depositions May Be Taken
- 15-6-28.1 Persons Before Whom Depositions May Be Taken
- 15-6-28.2 Persons Before Whom Depositions May Be Taken
- 15-6-28.3 Persons Before Whom Depositions May Be Taken
- 15-6-28.4 Persons Before Whom Depositions May Be Taken
- 15-6-28.5 Persons Before Whom Depositions May Be Taken
- 15-6-28.6 Persons Before Whom Depositions May Be Taken
- 15-6-29 Stipulations Regarding the Taking of Depositions
- 15-6-30 Depositions upon Oral Examinations
- 15-6-31 Depositions of Witnesses upon Written Interrogatories
- 15-6-32 Use of Depositions in Court Proceedings
- 15-6-33 Interrogatories to Parties
- 15-6-34 Discovery and Production of Documents and Things for Inspection, Copying, or Photographing
- 15-6-35 Physical and Mental Examinations and Blood Tests of Persons
- 15-6-36 Admission of Facts and of Genuineness of Documents
- 15-6-37 Refusal to Make Discovery — Consequences
Part VI. Trials
Cited as SDCL § · 17 active rules
- 15-6-38 Jury Trial of Right
- 15-6-39 Trial by Jury or by the Court
- 15-6-40 Assignment of Cases for Trial
- 15-6-41 Dismissal of Actions
- 15-6-42 Consolidation — Separate Trials
- 15-6-43 Evidence
- 15-6-44 Proof of Official Record
- 15-6-44.1 Determination of Foreign Law
- 15-6-45 Subpoena
- 15-6-46 Exceptions Unnecessary
- 15-6-47 Jurors
- 15-6-48 Juries of Less than Twelve — Majority Verdict
- 15-6-49 Special Verdicts and Interrogatories
- 15-6-50 Motion for a Directed Verdict and for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict
- 15-6-51 Instructions to Jury — Objection
- 15-6-52 Findings by the Court
- 15-6-53 Referees
Part VII. Judgment
Cited as SDCL § · 10 active rules
- 15-6-54 Judgment — Costs
- 15-6-55 Default
- 15-6-56 Summary Judgment
- 15-6-57 Declaratory Judgments
- 15-6-58 Entry of Judgment and Orders
- 15-6-59 New Trials — Amendment of Judgments
- 15-6-60 Relief from Judgment or Order
- 15-6-61 Harmless Error
- 15-6-62 Stay of Proceedings to Enforce a Judgment
- 15-6-63 Disability of a Judge
Part VIII. Provisional and Final Remedies and Special Proceedings
Cited as SDCL § · 8 active rules
Part IX. Expedited Civil Actions
Cited as SDCL § · 8 active rules
- 15-6-72 Expedited civil actions — General provisions.
- 15-6-72.1 Local intergovernmental actions — Alternative dispute resolution.
- 15-6-72.2 Local government body — Defined.
- 15-6-73 Discovery in expedited civil actions.
- 15-6-74 Motions.
- 15-6-75 Procedure for expedited trials.
- 15-6-76 Settlement conference — Alternative dispute resolution.
- 15-6-76.1 Claim preclusion — Issue preclusion.
Part X. Circuit Courts and Clerks
Cited as SDCL § · 2 active rules
- 15-6-77 Circuit Courts and Clerks
- 15-6-78 Circuit Courts and Clerks Reserved
- 15-6-80 Stenographic report or transcript as evidence.
Part XI. General Provisions
Cited as SDCL § · 6 active rules
Section 15-6-78 and 15-6-79 are printed in the official code as one combined "[Reserved]" entry with no operative text, shown as a single muted row. Eleven other lettered subdivisions within otherwise-active rules are themselves dead stubs (Repealed: 5(f), 5(j), 40(b); Superseded: 6(c), 26(f), 31(d), 43(b), 43(c), 45(e); Omitted: 81(b); Transferred: the bare "15-6-58" pointer, whose real content lives in 58(a)-(b)) -- these are noted, muted, and unlinked within their parent rule's own page rather than shown as separate dead-stub rows, since South Dakota's own dead-stub convention operates below the rule-number level that this site organizes pages around.