Rule Amendments Update: Standing Committee Approves Proposed Changes

On May 29-30, 2014, the Judicial Conference’s Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (the “Standing Committee”) met and approved the proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. (For background information on the proposed amendments, see our previous blog posts from May 27, 2014, February 10, 2014, and May 6, 2013.) The Standing Committee approved the entire slate of proposed amendments, including changes to the scope of discovery, as defined in Rule 26(b)(1), and changes to the standard to be applied by courts when imposing curative measures or sanctions for the spoliation of electronically stored information, as per Rule 37(e). Before approving the proposed amendments, the Standing Committee made several minor revisions, including changes to the proposed Committee Notes to Rules 26 and 37 (the meeting minutes setting forth the precise changes were not available as of writing). The Agenda Book from the Standing Committee’s meeting is available here.

The full Judicial Conference will take up the proposed amendments during its next meeting in September 2014. If approved by the Judicial Conference, the proposed amendments will then be submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court for consideration and approval. If adopted by the Supreme Court before May 1, 2015, the proposed amendments would take effect on December 1, 2015.

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