2015 Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

Young Lawyers Section Chair Hannah Lowe of Trammell, Adkins & Ward, P.C. presents "The 2015 Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure".

If you practice in federal court, it is very important that you become familiar with the upcoming amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.  The amendments have been developed over the last five years by the United States Judicial Conference Federal Rules Advisory Committee, and are set to take effect on December 1, 2015.  

The Advisory Committee recommended the amendments with a focus on three main areas: 

(1) scheduling/case management; 

(2) proportionality; and 

(3) preservation of discoverable information.  

By focusing on these areas, the Advisory Committee recommended the amendments with the goals of reducing delays in litigation, limiting ever increasing discovery costs, and addressing issues surrounding preservation of electronically stored information.  

The seminar will give you an overview of the amendments with a focus on how defense attorneys can use them to their advantage.  The seminar will also explore how the amendments impact an attorney’s ethical obligations to ensure that deadlines are met, objections to discovery requests are appropriate, and when sanctions might be appropriate for failure to preserve discoverable information.  

Make sure you don’t get caught out when the changes take effect in December!

One hour of Dual TN CLE credit was approved for this course.