Advisory Committee on Civil Rules/Discovery Subcommittee

Letters, reports, conferences, and comments leading up to the 2004 proposed amendments

In September 2002, the Discovery Subcommittee of Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure, a committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, issued a letter to approximately 250 attorneys, academics, and experts concerned with electronic discovery and the civil rules process in general, asking for their views on whether the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure should be amended to address issues raised by the discovery of computerized documents and data, and if so, what specific amendments should be considered. The letter drew thirteen responses within the announced comment period, but many more during 2003. In a memorandum dated September 15, 2003, Prof. Marcus summarized the responses and offered some possible rules amendment language for consideration by the Advisory Committee. This memorandum generated further response. A conference sponsored by the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules held at Fordham University in February 2004 generated another batch of responses. Finally, a memordanum from Prof Marcus and Prof. Myles Lynk, Chair of the Discovery Subcommittee, dated April 6, 2004, was sent to the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, summarizing the Subcommittee's proposals after the Fordham conference and further deliberations.

Although the responses posted below are considered "public," the Rules Support Office of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts does not have a mechanism for posting them for on its official web site. Therefore I obtained permission to make these available on this site.

  • Letter from Prof. Richard Marcus dated September 2002.
  • Memorandum from Prof. Richard Marcus dated September 15, 2003. This is the official version (approximately 1284K), as it appeared in the Agenda Book of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules for October 2003.
  • Memorandum from Prof. Richard Marcus dated September 15, 2003. This is the unofficial version (approximately 124K), which is much smaller and easier to download, but has erroneous pagination and line numbering.
  • Transcripts of the Fordham conference on electronic discovery: Friday morning February 21, 2004; Friday afternoon February 20, 2004; Saturday morning February 21, 2004.
  • Memorandum from Profs. Myles Lynk and Richard Marcus to the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules dated April 6, 2004.
  • Hon. Lee Rosenthal, Report of the Civil Rules Advisory Committee, May 17, 2004.

Responses: