TITLE TWO — COMMENCEMENT OF ACTION; SERVICE OF PROCESS, PLEADINGS, MOTIONS AND ORDERS
Rule 3.1. Case Types; Case Numbers; Assignment of a Judge
Case Types Generally. Every case bears a case type. The electronic filing system validates the case type against the list of types allowed in the court selected, and refuses a case whose type is not allowed in that court. A party may not commence in one court a matter of a type belonging to the other.
Types Originating in the Superior Court. The Superior Court originates every non-appellate type, including civil actions, criminal cases, expungement matters, ex parte matters, and applications for search warrants, arrest warrants, and bench warrants. Cases of the Superior Court bear the prefix RSC-.
Types Originating in the Supreme Court. The types originating in the Supreme Court are appellate in nature and consist of the appeal, the writ petition, the petition for review, and the original action. Cases of the Supreme Court bear the prefix RSPC-, or a legacy docket number. Matters of the Supreme Court are a restricted tier of the record: they are never upon the public docket, are reachable by a party through membership in the case, and are administered by the staff of that court alone. The Ridgeway Rules of the Supreme Court govern practice in those matters; these rules apply so far as they are applicable and not inconsistent.
Originating Case Number Required in Appellate Matters. A case of the appeal, writ, petition-for-review, or original-action type shall name the case number of the originating matter in the Superior Court, and the electronic filing system verifies that the case so named exists. A matter which has no originating case in the Superior Court cannot be commenced as a case of any of those types.
Case Numbers.
The case number is generated by the electronic filing system at the creation of the case, in the form prescribed by Rule 1.1(7), and is tested for uniqueness.
The case number is not sequential, is not derived from the year, and encodes nothing about the order in which cases were commenced. No rule, no order, no local rule, and no standing order shall key any consequence to the sequence of case numbers, and priority among cases shall never be determined by comparison of their case numbers.
Every pleading, motion, paper, summons, subpoena, order, judgment, and return in a case shall bear its case number.
Bates Numbers. The electronic filing system assigns a Bates number to each filing. A filing is cited in a paper, in argument, and in an order by its Bates number, together with the case number. A Bates number identifies a filing and not a page, and its sequence proves nothing.
Confidentiality by Type. Confidentiality attaches to a case by its type alone, as Rule 1.1(30) provides and as Rules 5.4 and 5.6 govern. The court cannot seal one document in a case that is not itself a sealed matter, and no order shall purport to do so. The protection of sensitive material in a case that is not a sealed matter is accomplished by the duty of the filer under Rule 5.6, by an order binding persons under Rule 5.6, and by rejection under Rule 5.3.
Parties Without Accounts; Placeholder Resident Accounts. Where a filer names a party who has no account, the electronic filing system creates a placeholder resident account bearing the username supplied.
The creation of such an account is a record-keeping act. It is not an appearance, does not confer or evidence the consent of the person named, does not confer standing, and does not make that person subject to the jurisdiction of the court; jurisdiction over that person is obtained by service of process under Rule 4.
A placeholder resident account is never an attorney account and is never privileged. No person shall be treated as counsel, and no communication shall be treated as privileged, by reason of such an account.
The filer who supplies the username warrants its accuracy. Naming a person by a username the filer knows or should know to be that of another person, or supplying a username in order to create an account in the name of a person who does not exist, is a violation of Rule 11 and is sanctionable.
The person to whom the username belongs may claim the party record upon authenticating to the electronic filing system, and thereupon has the access of a party.
Assignment of a Judge.
A judge is assigned to a case by the court, manually or from the assignment pool. Assignment is not part of filing and is not requested by a party.
A case may proceed to be docketed, to have a summons issued, and to be served while unassigned. No act requiring judicial determination shall be taken in a case until a judge has been assigned, except an act these rules commit to the clerk and an act which the duty court or the warrants workflow commits to a judge of that queue.
Reassignment upon the disability, disqualification, or unavailability of the assigned judge is governed by Rule 45. A visiting justice assigned under 3 R. Stat. § 121.102, a judge in senior status assigned under 3 R. Stat. § 122.104, and a magistrate judge assigned under 3 R. Stat. § 131.203 exercise the authority of the court to which they are assigned, subject to the limits those sections impose.
No assignment or referral to a magistrate judge shall be made in a civil proceeding in which the State is a party, nor in an administrative proceeding, as 3 R. Stat. § 131.203 provides.
Separate Cases Remain Separate in the Record. The electronic filing system maintains each case, its docket, and its case number separately, and affords no means of merging two cases into one. An order of consolidation under Rule 29 governs the conduct of the proceedings only; it does not merge the dockets, does not create a common case number, and does not cause a filing made in one case to appear in another. A paper intended to be filed in each of several consolidated cases shall be filed separately in each.