OFFICIAL 2021 CONNECTICUT PRACTICE BOOK (Revision of 1998) CONTAINING RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT CODE OF JUDICIAL CONDUCT RULES FOR THE SUPERIOR COURT RULES OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE APPENDIX OF FORMS NOTICE REGARDING OFFICIAL JUDICIAL BRANCH FORMS APPENDIX OF SECTION 1-9B CHANGES Published by The Commission on Official Legal Publications Copyrighted by the Secretary of the State of the State of Connecticut 2021 by the Secretary of the State, State of Connecticut Copyrighted by the Secretary of the State of the State of Connecticut EXPLANATORY NOTES The Superior Court Rules as organized herein were first published in the Connecticut Law Journal dated July 29, 1997. This 2021 edition of the Practice Book contains amendments to the Rules of Professional Conduct, the Superior Court Rules and the Rules of Appellate Procedure. The amendments were published in the Connecticut Law Journals dated February 11, 2020, July 14, 2020, and August 4, 2020. The system used to number each section is based on the chapter in which the section is located. Each section has a two part number. The first part of the number designates the chap- ter, and the second part designates the number of the section within that chapter. (Chapter 1 begins with 1-1, chapter 2 with 2-1, etc.) The internal breakdown of individual rules follows the style of the General Statutes. Subsections are designated by lower case letters in paren- theses, (a), (b), subdivisions are designated by numbers in parentheses, (1), (2), and subpara- graphs are designated by upper case letters in parentheses, (A), (B). Origin of the rules. A parenthetical notation about the origin of each rule is found at the end of every section in this volume. The notation (P.B. 1978-1997, Sec. ) indicates the number of the section in the 1978-1997 Practice Book corresponding to the current section. Current numbers of any sections corresponding to the sections in the 1978-1997 Practice Book appear in the Reference Tables following the text of the rules. The notation (1998) indicates that the section was new in the 1998 Practice Book, taking effect October 1, 1997. The notation (See P.B. 1978-1997, Sec. ) (1998) indicates that the section was modeled on a rule in the 1978-1997 Practice Book but was actually adopted for the first time to take effect October 1, 1997. There may be significant differences between the rules in this volume and those in the 1978-1997 Practice Book on which they were modeled. The temporary num- bers assigned to those rules in the July 29, 1997 Connecticut Law Journal, where they were originally published, appear in the Reference Tables following the text of the rules. When a section was adopted or amended after 1997, a parenthetical notation to that effect appears either immediately following the text of the section or following the parenthetical nota- tion concerning the derivation of the section. When the title to a section has been amended, a parenthetical notation appears immediately following the title. Histories and commentaries. Histories describing the nature of amendments and Com- mentaries indicating the intended purpose of new rules or amendments to existing rules are printed following the text of new or amended rules. Histories and Commentaries are included for only those rules that were adopted or amended to take effect in the year corresponding to the current edition of the Practice Book, with the following exceptions: (1) the Histories and Commentaries to the rules on sealing of files and closure of the courtroom will be retained on a cumulative basis; (2) the 2014 Commentary to Section 1-10B and the 2017 Commentary to Section 2-27A have been retained; and (3) Commentaries to certain sections of the Rules of Appellate Procedure have been retained. Users wanting to access the Histories documenting rule changes and Commentaries to new or amended rules, in a given year, should not discard the corresponding edition of the Practice Book. For example, Histories and Commentaries corresponding to rule changes to take effect January 1, 2021, will appear only in the 2021 edition of the Practice Book and not in subsequent editions, unless the rule falls into one of the exceptions, listed previously. The Commentaries to the rules of practice are included in this volume for informational purposes only. Commentaries to those rules are not adopted by the Judges and Justices when they vote to adopt proposed rule changes. Commentaries to the Rules of Professional Conduct and Code of Judicial Conduct are adopted by the Judges and Justices and are printed in every edition of the Practice Book. iii Copyrighted by the Secretary of the State of the State of Connecticut Beginning in 2000, Amendment Notes were incorporated into the Rules of Professional Conduct and the Code of Judicial Conduct. Those notes, approved by the Rules Committee of the Superior Court to explain the revisions to the Rules of Professional Conduct and Code of Judicial Conduct, appear only in the edition of the Practice Book corresponding to the year of the revision and not in subsequent editions. Every year, certain nonsubstantive, technical editorial changes are made to a number of the rules. Some, but not all, of these changes are explained in Technical Change notes. The Rules of Appellate Procedure. The reorganization of the Rules of Appellate Procedure in 1998 was completed subsequent to the publication of the July 29, 1997 Connecticut Law Journal and was published in this volume for the first time in 1998. The goal in reorganiz- ing the Rules of Appellate Procedure was to present them in the order in which an appellant might approach the appeal process, i.e., rules on whether to appeal, how to file, what to do next, when argument will take place, opinions and reargument. Rules on various special pro- ceedings were organized into separate chapters. No substantive changes were made in the course of reorganization, but there were editorial changes. Juvenile matters. Effective January 1, 2003, the rules pertaining to procedure in juvenile matters were amended and reorganized. The amendments initially were published in the Connecticut Law Journal of July 23, 2002. The July 23, 2002 Connecticut Law Journal gave notice that the rules on juvenile matters, which, since 1998, had been found in chapters 26 through 35, had been moved to chapters 26a through 35a. In the Practice Book itself, however, the original numbers of the juvenile rules were retained whenever possible. Appendices and notices. In 2002, an Appendix was added following the Index. The Appen- dix contains certain forms that previously had been in Volume 2 of the 1978-1997 Practice Book. The Appendix of Superior Court Standing Orders, which was added in 2010, was removed in 2012. A notice referring the reader to the Judicial Branch website for access to the Superior Court Standing Orders was substituted in its place. The Index of Official Judicial Branch Forms Used in Civil, Family and Juvenile Matters, which was added in 2010, was removed in 2018. A notice referring the reader to the Judicial Branch website for access to official Judicial Branch forms was substituted in its place. In 2021, a temporary appendix was added noting various changes enacted by the Rules Committee of the Superior Court, and subsequently adopted by the judges of the Superior Court, pursuant to Section 1-9B, in response to the public health emergency and the civil preparedness emergency initially declared by Governor Lamont on March 10, 2020, and then renewed by him on September 1, 2020. Subsequent changes may be adopted. Refer to www.jud.ct.gov, www.jud.ct.gov/COVID19.htm, and www.jud.ct.gov/pb.htm for updates. iv Copyrighted by the Secretary of the State of the State of Connecticut TABLE OF CONTENTS Attorney’s Oath ............................................. 1 Rules of Professional Conduct Preamble................................................. 1 Scope .................................................. 2 Rules and Commentaries ....................................... 4 Code of Judicial Conduct Preamble................................................. 65 Scope .................................................. 65 Terminology ............................................... 66 Application ................................................ 67 Canons, Rules and Comments .................................... 68 Superior Court Rules and Rules of Appellate Procedure Chapter and Section Headings of the Rules ............................. 82 Superior Court—General Provisions Chapter 1 Scope of Rules ....................................... 103 Chapter 2 Attorneys........................................... 113 Chapter 3 Appearances ........................................ 166 Chapter 4 Pleadings .......................................... 172 Chapter 5 Trials ............................................. 175 Chapter 6 Judgments .......................................... 177 Chapter 7 Clerks; Files and Records ................................. 179 Superior Court—Procedure in Civil Matters Chapter 8 Commencement of Action ................................. 185 Chapter 9 Parties ............................................ 187 Chapter 10 Pleadings.......................................... 193 Chapter 11 Motions, Requests, Orders of Notice, and Short Calendar .............. 205 Chapter 12 Transfer of Actions .................................... 214 Chapter 13 Discovery and Depositions ................................ 215 Chapter 14 Dockets, Trial Lists, Pretrials and Assignment Lists