Request for Review

I would like the court to address it's most recent rules changes and to also address the notion of rules changes in general.

I have stated repeatedly that inconsistencies with which rules are applied have concerned me. I believe that it is not in the best interests of justice to change the rules as we go along and I would like the court to let us know if the Adopted Court Rules change during proceedings it will use the Adopted Court Rules that had been established at the time the court proceedings (and by that I mean, the trial thread).

I thank the court for it's time.

As a defendant and a defense counsel, I am very interested to know whether the new rules apply to ongoing cases, and if so how they are to be applied.

As a general note in the past we have grandfathered all cases under the Court Rules that existed at the time the trial started. This won't change for all current cases that have been approved and trial threads created.

Also the Court under my serving as Chief Justice has had an open review policy with the Justices to where we can continually review the rules and make changes as needed. This is a power given to us by the Constitution. The rules have changed mostly due to putting them in practice and the intended result was not exactly what we wanted.

The most recent change clarified and simplified items as well as allowed for Civil Trials.

I would add that we treat Court Rules the same way we treat choice of law - we try under the rules and law that were applicable at the time of the incident in question, rather than the rules/law as they happen to be at time of trial. This is required by the Bill of Rights.

Thank you. So for all open cases we'll continue use of the Adopted Rules in place at the time commencement of those proceedings. Got it.

EDIT: updated.

Gaspo:

I would add that we treat Court Rules the same way we treat choice of law - we try under the rules and law that were applicable at the time of the incident in question, rather than the rules/law as they happen to be at time of trial. This is required by the Bill of Rights.

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That appears to be the opposite of what the Chief Justice just said.

I see the point of confusion you point out - for Rules, it's time of trial, in the same way that for Laws, it's time of alleged offense (with a couple small caveats). I was attempting to draw a comparison, but the wording I chose was sub-optimal. My apologies.