July 2012
Legal practitioners in Quezon City, the largest municipality in Metro Manila, are transitioning to a set of pilot court procedure rules, which will govern litigation in the city’s trial courts. Designed by the Philippine Supreme Court and the ABA Rule of Law Initiative, with financial support from the United States Agency for International Development, the rules incorporate best practices from other jurisdictions. They limit the length of pleadings, the kind of motions that can be filed and the number of times a case can be postponed. The rules are intended to speed up trials and reduce the case backlog in one of the country’s busiest court systems.