Free and Reliable e-Text Downloads for the New Federal Rules of Evidence (as well as 2012 editions of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Criminal Procedure)

The Restyled Federal Rules of Evidence, which became effective on December 1, 2011, are "[s]impler. Easier to read. Easier to understand. These [characterizations] describe the Federal Rules of Evidence after their first top-to-bottom restyling since they were drafted and enacted 36 years ago," according to the Third Branch. Ah, OK but ... well, for once our commercial legal publishers have a "justifiable" reason for shipping very expensive new pamphlet editions of FRE, a government document, this year.

However, here's two free and reliable e-text alternatives from Federal Evidence Review and Cornell LII-CALI:

1. Federal Evidence Review is providing a complimentary PDF download of the restyled Federal Rules of Evidence. The PDF includes direct links to the legislative history, jump links to specific rules and is searchable. There's more. Federal Evidence Review's e-publication project includes:

• Restyled FRE Legislative History page which summarizes and provides background information on the restyled amendments;
• A summary of the step-by-step process to restyle the FRE with links to key judicial reports; and
• Federal Evidence Blog posts on the new FRE.

The Federal Evidence Review is no fly by night effort. [About Page] It has been around for some time now and has established an excellent reputation for being a very dependable, expertise-driven resource.

2. Another free and very reliable e-resource for the Restyled FRE has been produced by Cornell Legal Information Institute and published in partnership with CALI, The 2012 eLangdell Federal Rules of Evidence plus the 2012 eLangdell editions of Federal Rules Civil Procedure and Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure are availble as free downloads in EPUB format here.

If you have doubts about editorial quality and manufacturing production control mechanisms in place at one or more of our very expensive legal publishers for materials like the above, there are alternative sources available which have established reputations that are not driven by profit maximization. [JH]