Duke Calls for Comments on Proportionality Guidelines

The Duke Law Center for Judicial Studies has issued a call for public comment on its Guidelines and Suggested Practices for Implementing the 2015 Discovery Amendments to Achieve Proportionality. The Guidelines have their genesis in the Duke Law Center’s conference on implementing the discovery proportionality standard held in November 2014.

The goal of the Guidelines and Suggested Practices is to provide authoritative guidance on implementing the proportionality standard. The first three Guidelines speak to the scope of discovery and application of the six proportionality factors. Guideline 4 makes clear the amendments do not alter the parties’ existing obligations or create new burdens, and Guideline 5 advises courts assessing competing claims of undue burden to do so under an objective reasonableness standard. The 11 practices “suggest ways to better achieve proportional discovery in specific cases,” while recognizing there “is no one-size-fits-all approach.”

Public comments should be sent to John Rabiej at John.Rabiej@Law.Duke.edu by August 21, 2015.