Loose Timing Requirements on the Filing of Rule 11 Agreements
January 16, 2013In this divorce proceeding, the parties negotiated and signed (but did not file with the Court) a Final Divorce Decree. Over the next year, the parties continued to negotiate the Final Decree even though they had already finalized and signed a prior version. These additional negotiations broke down and the parties could not arrive at a new agreement, so one party filed the previously signed version with the court, which the judge accepted.
When the trial court refused to set aside the Final Decree, this appeal followed, with the party challenging the Final Decree arguing that the agreement did not meet Rule 11’s requirements because it was not filed before it was signed by the trial judge. The Court of Appeals disagreed, holding that “[a]lthough rule 11 requires the writing to be filed as part of the record, the rules does not state when the writing must be filed.” According to the Court, Rule 11 only requires the agreement to be filed before it is sought to be enforced.
