PRCP 4009.1 Amended to Address Format of Electronic Documents.
Posted By Cliff Tuttle | July 16, 2012
No 885
An Amendment to Rule of Civil Procedure 4009.1 which contains clarification concerning discovery of electronic documents, will go into effect on August 1.
Here is the text of the amendment, with deletions from the existing Rule in bold with brackets like [this] and the additions in bold and underlined. The new provision states that a party requesting electronic documentation may request the format and the opposing party may object. Here is the new Rule 4009.1:
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Rule 4009.1. Production of Documents and Things. General Provisions
(a) Any party may serve a request upon a party pursuant to Rules 4009.11 and 4009.12 or a subpoena upon a person not a party pursuant to Rules 4009.21 through 4009.27 to produce and permit the requesting party, or someone acting on the party’s behalf, to inspect and copy any designated documents (including writings, drawings, graphs, charts, photographs, [electronically created data, and other compilations of data from which information can be obtained, translated, if necessary, by the respondent party or person upon whom the request or subpoena is served through detection or recovery devices into reasonably usable form] and electronically stored information), or to inspect, copy, test or sample any tangible things or electronically stored information, which constitute or contain matters within the scope of Rules 4003.1 through 4003.6 inclusive and which are in the possession, custody or control of the party or person upon whom the request or subpoena is served[;], and may do so one or more times.
(b) A party requesting electronically stored information may specify the format in which it is to be produced and a responding party or person not a party may object. If no format is specified by the requesting party, electronically stored information may be produced in the form in which it is ordinarily maintained or in a reasonably usable form.