Understanding the proportionality rule can help in-house counsel control discovery costs.
Federal and Texas rules of civil procedure allow the discovery of any matter that is not privileged and is relevant to the claim or defense. The scope of discovery in civil cases is very broad. However, the discovery rules have never sanctioned what the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Murphy v. Deloitte & Touche Group Insurance Plan called an “unwieldy, burdensome, and speculative fishing expedition.”
