eDiscovery Daily Blog
Could Senate Pose Roadblock to Federal Rules Changes? – eDiscovery Trends
As reported by Todd Luger in Law Technology News (Discovery Rules Changes Greeted With Skepticism in Senate), a congressional hearing opened with at least one senator voicing concerns about whether the changes would be effective at curbing the skyrocketing costs of discovery.
Changes to Federal Rules have been drafted and have been approved for public comment. But, as the author notes, Congress ultimately will review any changes before they go into effect near the end of 2015.
U.S. Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.), who chairs the Subcommittee on Bankruptcy and the Courts, called the congressional hearing and “predicted that some proposed restrictions – such as reducing the number of depositions, interrogatories and requests for admission for each case – would do nothing about the high-stakes, highly complex or highly contentious cases in which discovery costs are a problem.”
However, Senator Coons expressed concerns that “those limits would likely restrict plaintiffs in smaller cases in which discovery costs are not a problem…especially in employment, discrimination and consumer fraud cases, when most relevant evidence is in the possession of the defendant.”
As the author notes, Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., “voiced those same concerns”, offering her own criticism. “This is opening up a door to yet more time-consuming and expensive motions practice as we argue over what is proportional to the case,” she said.
Sounds like the battle to approve the rules changes has just begun.
So, what do you think? Do they have a point? Will the new rules changes penalize plaintiffs in smaller cases? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.
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