Scope and Purpose

These rules govern the procedure in the United States Court of Federal Claims in all suits. They should be construed, administered, and employed by the court and the parties to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action and proceeding. (As revised and reissued May 1, 2002; as amended Nov. 3, 2008, Aug. 1, 2016.) Rules Committee Notes 2002 Revision The Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims are drawn under the authority of 28 U.S.C. §§ 2071(a), (c); 2503(b) (generally); 2521(a) (subpoena and incidental powers). These rules may be cited as “RCFC.” Rule 1 has been revised to: (i) reflect the change in the court’s name; (ii) eliminate, as no longer necessary, the previous reference to proceedings pending in the court on October 1, 1982, the year of the court’s establishment; (iii) incorporate the 1993 revision to Rule 1 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) emphasizing that the rules are to be both construed and administered to ensure that civil litigation is resolved not only fairly, but without undue cost and delay; (iv) delete subdivision (a)(3) for consistency with the FRCP (while retaining the substance of this provision in RCFC 83(b), which is modeled on FRCP 83(b)); and (v) move subdivision (b) to the preamble, because it is explanatory rather than prescriptive. 2008 Amendment The language of RCFC 1 has been amended to conform to the general restyling of the FRCP. 2016 Amendment RCFC 1 has been amended in accordance with the corresponding change to FRCP 1 that became effective December 1, 2015.