Ride the Lightning

Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

New Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Took Effect December 1st

December 3, 2015

The first E-Discovery Day occurred on December 1st and I missed all the hoopla while attending to the business of being the President of Sensei Enterprises. It made me downright grumpy.

The new rules became effective on December 1, 2015 – the federal judiciary hopes they will fulfill the goals of Civil Rule 1 – the “just, speedy, and inexpensive” resolution of district court cases.

They are designed to lower the costs of litigation and they signal significant, widespread and dramatic alterations to the discovery rules. They apply to cases already in progress provided such application is “just and practicable” and to all newly filed cases.

For those looking for a quick snapshot, ACA International published a post highlighting the new changes which include:

  • Limiting the scope of discovery to information relevant to the claims and defenses in the litigation, and eliminating the provision of allowing for discovery of information “that may lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.”
  • New emphasis on a balancing test that can help to limit the scope of discovery.
  • Explicit reference to shifting discovery expenses through protective orders.
  • A requirement that objections to requests for production state whether any documents are being withheld due to the objection.
  • A provision allowing for earlier service of requests for production.
  • Changes to the rules regarding preservation and destruction of relevant electronically stored information.
  • A 30-day reduction in the time to serve a summons after filing.
  • A 30-day reduction in the time for courts to enter scheduling orders.
  • Limiting the imposition of sanctions only to situations where the court finds a party’s failure to preserve information was willful and in bad faith causing substantial prejudice.

The National Law Review has a story which goes into more depth – worth reading.

Some of the rules changes came out of evolving case law and others are more groundbreaking. I remain optimistic that they will help the current dismal situation in which so many credible cases are either not filed or settled early due to the obscenely high costs of litigation in federal court. The current system works (badly) only for the mega-companies – it should work for everyone.

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