United States District Court
District of Connecticut
Notice To The Bar

Criminal Rule 47  Proposed Amendment

Notice is hereby given to all members of the Bar of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut that the District Judges are considering an amendment to Local Criminal Rule 47. If adopted, the proposed amended Local Criminal Rule 47 will read as follows:

Rule 47
Motions

(a) Any party applying to the Court for an order must do so by motion.

(b) Motions to adopt are not permitted, although a party may indicate in the body of a motion or supporting memorandum of law that an argument of a co-defendant is incorporated by reference. Any such incorporation by reference must identify the motion or memorandum of law incorporated by specifying the name of the co-defendant, the date of filing and the document number. Incorporation by reference of motions or memoranda filed in another case is prohibited. The Court will not consider arguments incorporated by reference unless the requirements of this rule are met.

(c) Counsel for the government filing an omnibus response to defense motions must identify the motions responded to by the names of the motions, their document numbers, the names of the defendants who filed the motions and the dates the motions were filed.

Local Civil Rule 5(d)1 Proposed Amendment

Notice is hereby given to all members of the Bar of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut that the District Judges are considering an interim amendment to Local Civil Rule 5(d)1, pending a final report on a model protective order from the Federal Practice Section. If adopted, the proposed amended Local Civil Rule 5(d)1 will read as follows:

(d) Sealed Documents.

1. Counsel seeking to file a document under seal, shall file a redacted version of the document to be sealed, a motion to seal and shall attach to the motion the unredacted document to be sealed. The unredacted document shall be submitted in an unsealed envelope, bearing the caption of the case, the case number, and the caption of the document to be sealed. The Clerk of the Court shall file stamp and docket the redacted document, the motion to seal and the document to be sealed, shall forward the redacted document, the motion to seal and the document to be sealed to the Court for consideration. If ordered sealed by the Court, the Clerk shall seal the document in the envelope provided by counsel, shall note the date of the sealing order on the envelope and docket sheet. Upon submission by the party seeking a sealing order, the sealing envelope and its contents shall be treated as a sealed document until otherwise directed by the Court. If the Court denies the motion to seal, the unredacted document will be docketed by the Clerk of the Court.

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Any member of the bar wishing to comment on the proposed changes to Local Criminal Rule 47 and/or Local Civil Rule 5(d)1 may do so in writing to Judge Mark R. Kravitz, United States District Judge, 141 Church Street, New Haven, CT, on or before January 14, 2005. It is anticipated that, if adopted, the proposed Rule shall be effective as of February 1, 2005.

Kevin F. Rowe
Clerk of Court