The proposed amendments to Rule 16 aim to simplify the requirements pertaining to the addendum to a party’s brief. Under the proposed amendment to Rule 16 (a), copies of the judgments or orders at issue on appeal would no longer have to be included in the addendum. Instead, they would need only be included in the record appendix, per Rule 18 (a) (1) (A) (v) (c)-(d), and parties would need only cite to the record appendix. Under proposed new Rule 16 (a) (4.1), meanwhile, a party would include a table in their brief listing the appealed judgments or orders and specifying where in the record appendix they can be found. A more limited addendum would still be required but, to facilitate preparation of electronic briefs, would now appear after (rather than before) the certificates of compliance and service. In addition, existing parts of Rule 16 would be reordered and broken into subparts to either accommodate the proposed amendments or for ease of understanding.
The proposed amendment to Rule 20 (a) (4) (A) would dispense with the requirement that the pages of the main body of the brief and the addendum be numbered consecutively.
Finally, the proposed amendment to Rule 13 (e) (1) would make a change to a cross-reference necessitated by the above-referenced amendments to Rule 16.
Comments should be directed to Timothy E. Maguire, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, One Pemberton Square, Boston, MA 02108 on or before August 6, 2025. Comments may also be emailed to timothy.maguire@jud.state.ma.us. Comments received will be made available to the public.
Proposed Amendments to Rules 13, 16, and 20 of Massachusetts Rules of Appellate Procedure