As a follow up to my posts of November 20 and November 21, 2008, in which I reported on the proposed amendments to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 26 and 56, the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules has held a series of public hearings on the proposals and the comment period has closed. The Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States reported on the progress of the Advisory Committee in a March meeting of the Judicial Conference, and indicated that the Advisory Committee will be meeting again this month to further consider the testimony and written comments submitted on the proposed amendments.
In addition, the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure stated that the Civil Rules Committee plans "to hold a major conference in 2010 with judges, lawyers, and law professors" to address the issues raised in the recent report issued by the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System concerning the "the rising costs of electronic discovery, the public’s deepening disenchantment with federal trial practices and procedures, and the flight of litigants from federal court to state court and alternative dispute organizations." I discussed that report in my recent post here. As expected, the report on the growing costs and burdens of e-discovery is reverberating throughout the legal community. It will be interesting to see what the Civil Rules Committee does with it in 2010.
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