The Delaware Supreme Court recently revised its Internal Operating Procedures (IOPs). As noted in the press release announcing the revisions: “The updated procedures are largely consistent with the existing procedures, but have been streamlined and updated: (i) to eliminate provisions that simply repeated sections of the court’s rules; (ii) to address how the court has operated in the past decade when technology has increased the easier flow of information; (iii) to create more flexibility in internal communications, deliberations, and preparation for oral arguments, while retaining the important ethos that all key decision-making communications include everyone involved in the entire panel assigned to the case; and (iv) to eliminate outdated provisions that no longer reflect how the court has operated in the past decade.”
Outlined below are summaries of some of the provisions that practitioners may find most useful in understanding how appeals to this court move through the appellate process from filing to decision. While many of these IOPs are not entirely new, they do represent the topics that seem to most frequently arise when non-Delaware lawyers seek counsel from Delaware lawyers regarding the appellate process before this court. The IOPs may be found on the court’s website at http://courts.delaware.gov/rules.
