CIVIL PRACTICE CORNER
CIVIL PRACTICE CORNER
ADAM RABIN
Florida’ s New“ Proportionality” Standard for Civil Discovery: It’ s a Game Changer( Continued)
Albeit tempered by its adoption of the proportionality standard in 2015, the U. S. Supreme Court nonetheless“ has stressed on multiple occasions the need to construe the [ Federal ] Rules liberally to allow for robust discovery.” 7 Thus, when“ it appears that further discovery would not be helpful in resolving the issues, a request for further discovery is properly denied. 8 In this regard, when a when a party moves to compel discovery, the moving party“ has the initial burden of proving the requested discovery is relevant and proportional.” 9
As Florida’ s federal courts have set forth, the proportionality standard“ requires counsel and the court to consider whether relevant information is discoverable in view of the needs of the case” and often applies to ration or eliminate all forms of discovery that are unnecessary in a specific case or too burdensome as framed for the case. 10 Likewise, Florida’ s federal courts use the proportionality standard to limit different types of discovery, including depositions and various types of written discovery requests, when there is no showing of necessity for the requested discovery. 11
In sum, while the addition of the proportionality standard to Florida’ s civil rules initially may create extra work for trial judges now charged with applying a balancing test to every discovery request in which the responding party raises a proportionality objection, it also is more likely to streamline and focus discovery to issues that truly matter in the case. And now that Florida’ s trial judges have the proportionality“ arrow in their quiver,” it is reasonable to expect that once they become nimble at applying the new standard, they may be deciding discovery disputes more fluidly than before and have an additional tool to manage their dockets more efficiently.
Adam Rabin is a partner with Rabin Kammerer Johnson in West Palm Beach, where he practices business, securities and whistleblower litigation, and is Florida Bar Board Certified in Business Litigation. He serves as Co-Chair of PBCBA’ s Civil Practice Committee. He may be reached at arabin @ rkjlawgroup. com.
1 See In re Amendments to Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, 386 So. 3d 497, 501( Fla. 2024). 2 See In re Amendments to Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, 2024 WL 4983566, at * 1( Fla. Dec. 5, 2024). 3 See id.
4 Fla. R. Civ. 1.280( c)( 1)( emphasis added).
5 2024 WL 4983566, at * 14. 6 Id. at * 1. 7 See Akridge v Alfa Mut. Ins. Co, 1 F. 4th 1271, 1276( 11th Cir. 2021); Off. Depot, Inc. v. Elementum Ltd., 2020 WL 5506445, at * 4( S. D. Fla. Sept. 14, 2020). 8 See Avirgan v. Hull, 932 F. 3d 1572, 1580-81( 11th Cir. 1991).
9 See Isaac Indus, Inc. v. Petroquimica de Venezuela, 2022 WL 17532276, at * 5( S. D. Fla. Dec. 8, 2022)( citations omitted). In turn,‘[ t ] he responding party must then specifically show how the requested discovery is unreasonable or unduly burdensome.” Id.( citations omitted). 10 See Off. Depot, Inc., 2020 WL 5506445, at * 3. 11 See, e. g., id.( applying proportionality standard to preclude the depositions of large corporation’ s board members where there would be no prejudice that would result to the plaintiff); 2005 Robert Julien Family Delaware Dynasty Trust v. Internal Revenue Service, 2024 WL 678134, at * 3( S. D. Fla. Feb. 20, 2024)( finding a party’ s request for a government agency to produce data available through public sources and equally accessible to the requesting party was disproportionate to the needs of the case); Dick’ s Sporting Goods, Inc. Forbes / Cohen Florida Properties, 2023 WL 5831467, at * 5( S. D. Fla. Sept. 8, 2023)( request for counsel’ s communications after the lawsuit commenced were not proportional to the needs of the case).