Supreme Court amends discovery rule to prevent case delays
The Florida Supreme Court agreed Thursday to amend a discovery rule to address a Civil Procedure Rules Committee concern about potential delays.
The unanimous opinion adopts the committee’s proposed amendment to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.280 (Timing and Sequence of Discovery).
More specifically, the ruling addresses wording in a sentence the court added as part of a civil case management amendments in a previous ruling, In re Amends. to Fla. Rules of Civ. Proc., 402 So. 3d 925 (Fla. 2024).
The sentence, in subdivision (f), stated that “A party may not seek discovery from any source before that party’s disclosure obligations are satisfied, except when authorized by stipulation or by court order.”
In its petition, the Civil Procedure Rules Committee reported that some litigants were refusing to respond to discovery requests on the basis that initial disclosure obligations have not been “satisfied.”
“The ‘satisfaction’ requirement found in current rule 1.280(f) will result in unnecessary delay of the discovery process and require additional hearings,” the petition states. “This delay will result in parties failing to meet the case management deadlines governing discovery and other deadlines.”
Justices agreed.
“To avoid any unnecessary delay, we now replace the phrase ‘party’s initial disclosure obligations are satisfied’ in rule 1.280(f) with ‘party’s initial disclosures are served on the other party.’”
The ruling goes on to note that “Incomplete and inadequate initial discovery disclosures are addressed in Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.380(d) (Failure to Disclose or to Supplement an Earlier Response).”
The amendments become effective immediately, according to the ruling.
In Re: Amendments to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.280(f), Case No. SC2025-0697, is here.
