Federal Judicial Center

Implementation of Disclosure in Federal District Courts, with Specific Attention to Courts' Responses to Selected Amendments to Federal Rule of Civil Procedurre 26 Federal Judicial Center

On December 1, 1993, amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure went into effect. Among these, amendments to Rule 26 provide for three types of self-executing disclosure: initial disclosure; expert disclosure; and pretrial disclosure. The amended rule also provides for deferral of formal discovery until parties have met to discuss and plan discovery and to make or arrange for the exchange of disclosures. The proposed amendments to Rule 26 generated substantial controversy and an effort, ultimately unsuccessful, to persuade Congress to remove the proposed changes from the rule. The rule itself permits each court by local rule or order to exempt all cases or categories of cases from some of the rule's requirements and also permits parties to stipulate out of some of the requirements.