Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

Law

Legal Definition of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

body of procedural rules governing civil actions in federal courts. As stated in Rule 1, the rules' purpose is “to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action.” Two central elements of civil process covered by the rules are discovery and pretrial conference, the former being a review of the facts by both parties and the latter being a meeting before a judge or magistrate to determine whether a trial is necessary or whether an out-of-court settlement might be reached. The federal rules have served as a model for many state court rules of civil procedure.