Discovery Requests in Employment Litigation After Amended Rules 26(b) and 34(b)

Since the 2015 amendments to Rule 26(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, employment litigators have increasingly raised proportionality arguments to support their own discovery requests and to object to opposing counsel’s discovery requests. Courts have emphasized that parties must rein in broad discovery requests.

Litigators must justify any discovery request beyond the direct circumstances of the employment law claim and damages sought. Interrogatories, requests for production of documents, requests for admissions, and third-party subpoenas for information in personnel files intended to demonstrate similar conduct or prior complaints may be narrowed or quashed if the burden of producing the information outweighs its likely benefit.

Drafting discovery requests likely to withstand burden and proportionality challenges and crafting objections to broad discovery requests are critical skills for employment litigators. This includes understanding how to object to Rule 34 requests with specificity and how to respond to early requests for production within a “reasonable time,” which the 2015 amendments also require.

Listen as our authoritative panel discusses how courts are interpreting and applying the 2015 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and best practices for employment litigators for drafting and responding to discovery requests.

1. Brief overview of 2015 amendments and their requirements
2. Considerations for drafting discovery requests
3. Strategies for responding/objecting to discovery requests

The panel will review these and other key issues:

• When drafting discovery requests, what considerations should employment counsel take into account to ensure that the requests are in line with the proportionality standard?
• When responding to early requests for production, how specific must employment litigators be in their objections? What constitutes “reasonable time” for producing information?
• What guidance does case law provide on determining the circumstances in which the burden or expense of obtaining discovery outweighs the likely benefit?