Under new federal rules that went into effect in December, the scope of discovery in civil lawsuits has been limited: a party is now required to produce only information "proportional to the needs of the case." 

In a recent New York Times article, Professor Suja Thomas expresses concern about the rules.

“The [rules] were aimed to decrease costs in the cases where costs were out of control. This is a very small set of cases. On the other hand, the new rules may tie the hands of litigants like victims of employment discrimination. These are cases where discovery is very important because employers have so much information."

Thomas is also a key voice in a National Law Journal article, renewing her concerns about Duke Law Center for Judicial Studies’ involvement in publishing guidelines on the application of the rules that were mailed to federal judges: “That effort improperly blurs the lines between a private initiative and the official rulemaking and training process for judges.”

Read more:

New York Times article

National Law Journal article

Thomas’ Law360 Op-Ed on Duke’s involvement with the new rules