Current Status of Rule 11 in the Ninth Circuit and Washington State

Admittedly, amended Rule 11 has stirred up a great deal of controversy. The Advisory Committee of which Professor Miller is now a member will be considering a variety of proposed amendments to the Rule. While in Seattle for the 1991 spring meeting of the American Bar Association, Professor Miller expressed his own personal hope that the Rule be left unchanged for now, predicting that the upsurge in its use (and misuse) will follow a bell-shaped curve. The authors concur with the hope that it be left unchanged until the bench and bar have had both additional time to develop the limits of salutary enforcement and the opportunity to create means for assisting that process such as those suggested in this essay.