On January 17, 2013, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rescinded the Pennsylvania Rules of Evidence and adopted “restyled rules of evidence” which take effect on March 18, 2013. According to the Rules Committee, the reasons for the change included the desire to mirror some of the Federal Rules of Evidence, the US Supreme Court approved restyled Federal Rules of Evidence in 2011 and the dissimilarities between the Federal and the Pennsylvania Rules led to confusion. The Rules Committee noted, however, that the stylistic changes were not intended to change the substantive meaning of the rules.
