In December 2015, new amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) went into effect aimed at making the discovery process more, as Rule 1 says, “just, speedy and inexpensive.” But for many attorneys around the U.S., the crucial aspect of the FRCP is that first word: federal, meaning a large number of cases in state and local courts would not receive similar, updated discovery rules.
But since late 2015, a number of states have moved to close that gap, updating their own rules for a 21st-century discovery process. The latest of those is the state of Michigan, which recently made the largest change to its civil discovery rules in 35 years in a bid to increase “everyone’s access to our courts to resolve their civil legal dispute in a cost-effective manner,” the state bar said. The new rules go into effect Jan. 1.
