CHAPTER 3 - 3-5 Signing and Certification Requirements

• Jurisdiction: United States

3-5 Signing and Certification Requirements

Texas Rule 191.3 requires a party's attorney or a pro se party to sign all written discovery requests, responses, and objections.⁴¹ "The requirement that discovery requests, notices, responses, and objections be signed also applies to documents used to satisfy the purposes of such instruments. An example is a statement that privileged material or information has been withheld, which may be separate from a response to the discovery request but is nevertheless part of the response."⁴²

A signature on a disclosure is a "certification that to the best of the signer's knowledge, information, and belief, formed after a reasonable inquiry, the disclosure is complete and correct as of the time it is made."⁴³ A signature on a discovery request, notice, response, objection, or privilege assertion also is "a certification that to the best of the signer's knowledge, information, and belief, formed after a reasonable inquiry, the request, notice, response, or objection:"

(1) is consistent with the rules of civil procedure and these discovery rules are warranted by existing law or a good faith argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law;

(2) has a good faith factual basis;

(3) is not interposed for any improper purpose, such as to harass or to cause unnecessary delay or needless increase in the cost of litigation; and

(4) is not unreasonable or unduly burdensome or expensive, given the needs of the case, the discovery already had in the case, the amount in controversy, and the importance of the issues at stake in the litigation.⁴⁴

This certification is broader than the general one under Texas Rule 13, which provides that "[t]he signatures of attorneys or parties constitute a certificate by them that they have read the pleading, motion, or other paper; that to the best of their knowledge, information, and belief formed after reasonable inquiry the instrument is not groundless and brought in bad faith or groundless and brought for the purpose of harassment."⁴⁵ Texas Rule 191.3's certification is similar to the certification for pleadings and motions required by Section 10.001 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code.⁴⁶

The purpose of Texas Rule 191.3's certification is to deter discovery abuse by requiring the person making the certification to carefully consider the propriety of the discovery request, notice, response, objection, or privilege assertion before signing it. "If the...