Released on = May 12, 2007, 5:09 am

Press Release Author = The Burton Awards for Legal Achievement

Industry = Law

Press Release Summary = First time ever Judicial Project in Law
Awarded Prize

Press Release Body = \"Reform in Law\" Awarded for
First Plain-Language Rewrite of
Federal Civil Court Rules in 70 Years

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 11, 2007
Contact: Harold Whitford
Telephone: 917-376-8900
Faxsimile: 516-625-3011
_______________________________________________________________________________________


New York, New York: The Burton Awards has named the project to clarify the Federal
Rules of Civil Procedure, used in federal trial courts, as the winner of its 2007
\"Reform in Law\" award. The awards program is run in association with the Library of
Congress and the Law Library of Congress, and the ceremony will be held at the
Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C., on
June 4, 2007.

The newly rewritten rules are the product of an intensive four-year effort by
federal judges, practicing lawyers, law professors, and a drafting consultant. The
new rules were approved by the Supreme Court of the United States and sent to
Congress on April 30. They are scheduled to take effect on December 1, 2007.

The awards will be given to three recipients: the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules,
which carried out the project; to the Standing Committee on Rules of the Judicial
Conference of the United States, which supervised the project and two earlier
projects to rewrite the Federal Criminal and Appellate Rules; and to Professor
Joseph Kimble from Thomas Cooley Law School, who served as the drafting consultant.

The civil rules-more than 300 pages as approved by the Supreme Court-were originally
written in 1937 and have never been completely rewritten since then. The rules
govern the procedure in all federal trial courts (U.S. District Courts); are relied
on daily by countless judges and lawyers; serve as models for state courts; are
studied by law students in a year-long course; and have produced many volumes of
commentary.

The difference between the old and the new rules is striking. Here, for example, is
an old rule:

"When two or more statements are made in the alternative and one of them if made
independently would be sufficient, the pleading is not made insufficient by the
insufficiency of one or more of the alternative statements."

Here's the new version:

"If a party makes alternative statements, the pleading is sufficient if any
one of them is
sufficient."

The new rules will have great practical and symbolic importance. On the practical
side, judges, lawyers, and law students will find them much easier to learn and use:
they are shorter, clearer, plainer, more internally consistent, and much better
organized and formatted. At the same time, they will help put to rest the mistaken
notion that laws and rules must be written in the archaic, inflated, verbose, and
convoluted style that has come to be known as legalese.

According to Judge Rosenthal, chair of the Advisory Committee, "Our goal was to make
the rules clearer, more readable, and more consistent-without changing the
substantive meaning. We think we have achieved that goal and are honored to receive
this award."

* * * * * *
* *

The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules

U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal, chair; U.S. Circuit Judges Jose Cabranes and Paul
Kelly; U.S. District Judges Richard Kyle, H. Brent McKnight, Thomas Russell, and
Shira Scheindlin; U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Hagy; Justice Nathan Hecht
(Texas); Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler (Department of Justice); Dean John
Jeffries (University of Virginia); attorneys Frank Cicero, Daniel Girard, Robert
Heim, Andrew Scherffius, and Chilton Varner; Professor Myles Lynk (Arizona State
University); Professor Edward Cooper, reporter; Professors Thomas Rowe (Duke
University) and Richard Marcus (University of California, Hastings) consultants;
attorney Joseph Spaniol and Professor Joseph Kimble (Thomas Cooley Law School),
style consultants. The chair of the Standing Committee on Rules of the Judicial
Conference of the United States is U.S. District Chief Judge David Levi. The
Standing Committee's Style Subcommittee consists of U.S. District Judge Garvan
Murtha, chair; U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash; and Dean Mary Kay Kane (University
of California, Hastings).

Judge Lee H. Rosenthal

Judge Rosenthal is a United States District Court Judge, Southern District of Texas,
Houston, Texas. She was appointed to this position in 1992. Judge Rosenthal serves
as the chair of the Federal Judicial Conference Advisory Committee for Federal Rules
of Civil Procedure. She was selected to the committee of the Civil Rules Committee
by Chief Justice Rehnquist in 1996. She chaired the Class Actions Subcommittee and,
in October 2003, became Committee Chair. Judge Rosenthal is also a member of the
Board of Editors for the Manual for Complex Litigation, published by the Federal
Judicial Center, and a member of the American Law Institute, for which she serves as
an advisor for the Aggregate Litigation Project and Transnational Civil Procedure
Rules Project. She is also an Observer to The Sedona Conference® Working Group on
Electronic Document Retention and Production (WG1). Judge Rosenthal was selected as
the trial judge of the year by the Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate
Specialists in 2000 and again in 2006. Before her appointment to the federal
judiciary, she practiced with Baker & Botts in Houston, Texas from 1978 to 1992,
becoming a partner in 1985.

Professor Joseph Kimble

Joseph Kimble has taught legal writing for 25 years at Thomas Cooley Law School. He
has lectured throughout the United States and abroad and recently published the book
Lifting the Fog of Legalese: Essays on Plan Language. He is the editor in chief of
The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, the longtime editor of the \"Plain Language\"
column in the Michigan Bar Journal, the past president of the international
organization Clarity, a founding director of the Center for Plain Language, and the
drafting consultant on all federal court rules.

Burton Awards

The Burton Awards is funded by the Burton Foundation which is a not for profit,
academic effort. It is devoted to recognizing and rewarding significant achievement
in the legal profession. Since its inception in 1999 the organization has focused
primarily on the refinement and enrichment of legal writing. The founder of the
program is William C. Burton, a partner in the international law firm of D'Amato &
Lynch and both a former New York State Assistant Attorney General, and Assistant
Special Prosecutor. He is the author of the authoritative reference book, BURTON'S
LEGAL THESAURUS, (McGraw-Hill) which now celebrates over 25 years since its first
publication.
Library of Congress
This prominent institution is one of the most celebrated and distinguished libraries
in the world. It was established on April 24, 1800 and since that time has grown to
become one of the largest repositories ever collected. The Library of Congress
functions as both a national library and as the research arm of the United States
Congress. It contains more than 30 million catalogued books and more than 58 million
manuscripts.
Law Library of Congress
The mission of the Law Library of Congress is to serve the United States Congress as
a legislative library providing foreign law analysis, research, and reference. This
service extends to the executive and judicial branches of the U.S. government and as
its remaining resources allow, to the public. The Law Library of Congress is the
world's most comprehensive source of legal information and center for research in
foreign, international and comparative law.


Additional Examples from the Civil Rules


Old:

There shall be one form of action to be known as "civil action".

Old:

When an order is made in favor of a person who is not a party to the action, that
person may enforce obedience to the order by the same process as if a party; and,
when obedience to an order may be lawfully enforced against a person who is not a
party, that person is liable to the same process for
enforcing obedience to the order as if a party.

New:

There is one form of action - the civil action.

New:

When an order grants relief for a nonparty or may be enforced against a nonparty,
the procedure for enforcing the order is the same as for a party

Old:

The practice as herein prescribed governs in actions involving the exercise of the
power of eminent domain under the law of a state, provided that if the state law
makes provision for trial of any issue by jury, or for trial of the issue of
compensation by jury or commission
or both, that provision shall be followed.

New:

This rule governs an action involving eminent domain under state law. But if state
law provides for trying an issue by jury - or for trying the issue of compensation
by jury or commission of both - that law governs.

Web Site = http://

Contact Details = Contact: Harold Whitford
Telephone: 917-376-8900
Faxsimile: 516-625-3011