How to Check a Federal Court AO Form Is Current

For the three federal court forms examined here — AO 440, AO 399, and AO 88B — the official form page states an “Effective on” date and the official PDF carries a revision stamp. Comparing those two official records lets a reader check whether the dates match.

This original record-reading guide is a general reading aid, not cited evidence. It does not depict a source record; the article text and source links provide the facts.

Key points

• AO 440’s page states an effective date of June 1, 2012, and its PDF carries the stamp “(Rev. 06/12)” (form page; PDF).
• AO 399’s page states January 1, 2009, and its PDF carries “(01/09)” (form page; PDF).
• AO 88B’s page states February 1, 2014, and its PDF carries “(Rev. 02/14)” (form page; PDF).
• The two examined index pages list forms but do not display the effective dates cited on the individual form pages (forms index; civil forms index).

Find the effective date

For the three examples here, the individual uscourts.gov page states the form number and effective date directly. For the summons form, the page reads: “Form Number: AO 440 … Category: Notice of Lawsuit, Summons, Subpoena … Effective on June 1, 2012” (uscourts.gov).

For the waiver-of-service form, the corresponding page reads: “Form Number: AO 399 … Effective on January 1, 2009” (uscourts.gov).

For the document-production subpoena form, the page reads: “Form Number: AO 88B … Effective on February 1, 2014” (uscourts.gov).

Match the PDF stamp

The PDF that uscourts.gov serves for each form repeats its version as a stamp printed in the header of every page. The AO 440 PDF’s header reads “AO 440 (Rev. 06/12) Summons in a Civil Action” on its first page, and the same stamp — “AO 440 (Rev. 06/12) Summons in a Civil Action (Page 2)” — appears on its second page (uscourts.gov). The “06/12” matches the page’s stated June 1, 2012 effective date.

The AO 399 PDF uses the older, unlabeled stamp format: its header reads “AO 399 (01/09) Waiver of the Service of Summons” (uscourts.gov), matching the January 1, 2009 effective date on its individual page.

The AO 88B PDF header reads “AO 88B (Rev. 02/14) Subpoena to Produce Documents, Information, or Objects or to Permit Inspection of Premises in a Civil Action” (uscourts.gov), matching its February 1, 2014 effective date.

Skip the index pages

The general forms listing (uscourts.gov) and the civil-forms listing (uscourts.gov) list form names and numbers, but do not display the individual effective dates quoted above. The individual form pages supply those dates.

This article does not address any district-specific filing requirement or what information to enter into or file with these forms.

As covered above, the index pages themselves carry no version information — only each form’s own page and PDF do.

Source links

• U.S. Courts Forms Index
• U.S. Courts Civil Forms Index
• AO 440 form page and PDF
• AO 399 form page and PDF
• AO 88B form page and PDF