NCJ Number
95758
Date Published
1983
Length
46 pages
Annotation
The reporter to the Federal Rules Advisory Committee discusses the principal objectives of the 1983 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: to promote increased lawyer responsibility, to increase judicial management in the pretrial process, to curb abuses of the discovery process, and to impose sanctions on lawyers.
Abstract
Today's society contains many incentives to litigation: contingent fees and statutes providing for attorney's fee awards, new rights created in the 1960's, the proliferation of lawyers, and open access to the courts. Because most civil cases are settled before trial, the Advisory Committee focused on reforms in the pretrial process. First, it retooled Rule 11, which requires the lawyer to sign a pleading, and Rule 7, which states that the signature requirement in Rule 11 is applicable to all motions and other papers. The rules were revised to include a mandated obligation for the attorney to contemplate his or her behavior on the basis of the facts and the law. In addition, the new standard for certification is more precise and insists that a paper be 'grounded in fact' or 'warranted by existing law.' Rule 16, the pretrial conference, has been replaced by a rule that is a blueprint for management. It mandates a scheduling order, provides a checklist of things that can be discussed in a formal conference, and expressly states that a judge can consider the possibility of a settlement. Although opinions on discovery abuse are subjective, most people agree that two types are unacceptable: overdiscovery and disproportionate discovery. Rule 26 attacks these problems by authorizing the court to limit the frequency and extent of discovery under specified conditions. Finally, the rules have eight new sanctions to deter lawyer misbehavior. Footnotes are included.