Under the 2015 Amendments, litigators will be required to sharpen their pencils and think before reacting to a document request.
In a nutshell:
- Parties will be required to incorporate the proportionality standards from Rule 26(b) and 26(g) in their document requests and objections.
- The parties will no longer be allowed to use broad “any and all” or “each and every”document requests.
- Boilerplate objections will no longer be acceptable.
- Parties will be able to serve a document request under Rule 26(d)(2) before the Rule 26(f ) conference.
- Producing party will be required to to identify the date a production will be complete and for rolling productions, “the beginning and end dates of the production.”
- Producing party will be required to expressly state that it is opting to produce copies instead of permitting an inspection.