Mich. Admin. Ord. Administrative Order No. 2021-8
Administrative Order No. 2021-8 - Establishment of the Michigan Rules of Evidence Review Committee
In 1974, the Court appointed a committee to consider a Michigan uniform code of evidence, prompted by the adoption of the Federal Rules of Evidence. In exercising its duty, the committee created and the Court adopted the Michigan Rules of Evidence in 1978. According to the committee comments, "the Committee unanimously agreed that it would draft the Michigan Rules of Evidence generally patterned on the Federal Rules of Evidence," and the adopted rules did just that. Although they do contain some deviations from the federal rules, the Michigan Rules of Evidence continue to remain largely consistent in substance. However, in 2011, the United States Supreme Court adopted a restyled version of the Federal Rules of Evidence. This "restyling" only included stylistic changes such as reformatting, reducing the use of inconsistent terms, minimizing the use of ambiguous words, and removing outdated or redundant words and concepts; no substantive changes were made.
In an effort to remain as consistent as possible with the federal rules, the Michigan Supreme Court is forming a committee to review the Michigan Rules of Evidence for potential amendments similar to those adopted for the Federal Rules of Evidence. The Court appoints the following members to the Michigan Rules of Evidence Review Committee, effective immediately. The committee shall provide a recommendation to the Court within one year.
Timothy Baughman (Chair)
Joseph Kimble (Style consultant)
Hon. Timothy M. Kenny (Member)
Mary Massaron (Member)
Michael Mittlestat (Member)
B. Eric Restuccia (Member)
Angela Mannarino (Member)
Judith A. Susskind (Member)
Mich. Admin. Ord. Administrative Order No. 2021-8