Like the federal trial court rules, the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure were revised effective the first of December. The Ninth Circuit website provides a convenient red-line version of the FRAP and Circuit Rules (PDF) and describes some of the highlights of the changes.

Chief among them is that time is now uniformly counted in calendar days. To make up for the shortening of some time periods previously counted in court days, the rules have adjusted their length. The court has made available a chart of the time period changes as a PDF download.

Among other changes:

• Many forms have been revised, with the current versions here.
• The Civil Appeals Docketing Statement has been replaced by a Mediation Questionnaire.

Make sure you are working with the current rules!