Library Research Guide Court rules control the conduct of court business. They are uniform throughout an entire court system.
Local rules vary among courts and are more difficult to locate in the research process.
The basic federal procedural rules are the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, and Federal Rules of Evidence. These rules are printed in separate pamphlets and also are included in annotated or unannotated texts of the United States Code . Federal court rules can be updated through Shepard's. To locate state cases which interpret federal rules use the various state Shepard's statutory citators. Federal Rules Decisions contains District Court cases which interpret Fed.