On Aug. 19, the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States issued a package of proposed amendments for public comment. One proposed amendment—governing the contents and effect of a notice of appeal—is particularly worthy of attention, because it is intended to remove a trap for the unwary that currently exists in federal appellate practice. And, to the extent this very same trap for the unwary may exist in the Pennsylvania state court appellate practice, the Pennsylvania state court appellate rules advisory committee may wish to propose a similar amendment to the Pennsylvania Rules of Appellate Procedure.

Let me begin by describing the problem that the rule amendment in question was designed to address, and then I will examine how the proposed amendment goes about solving that problem. As a result of the so-called “final judgment rule,” the one and often only time that an appeal can be filed in a civil case is at the end of the entire case, when the case has been resolved as to all claims and all parties. This final judgment rule applies to civil cases pending in both federal and Pennsylvania state courts.