§34.3 Historical Development

• Jurisdiction: Washington

§34.3 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

CR 34 was adopted May 5, 1967, effective July 1, 1967, and was amended May 26, 1972, effective July 1, 1972. The 1972 amendment eliminated the requirement of showing "good cause" to justify production. See Cook v. King County, 9 Wn.App. 50, 510 P.2d 659 (1973). The requirement of making a motion to obtain discovery was also eliminated. As a result of the amendments, a party seeking discovery under CR 34 merely serves a request upon another party. The rule operates extrajudicially rather than by court order.

CR 34(b) was amended June 5, 1985, effective September 1, 1985, and June 12, 1989, effective September 1, 1989. The 1985 amendment paralleled a 1980 amendment to FED. R. CIV P. 34 requiring a party producing documents to provide them as they are kept in the usual course of business or to organize and label them to correspond with categories in the request. The 1989 amendment to CR 34(b) changed the time for responding to a request under CR 34 from 20 days to 30 days after service of a request, conforming to FED. R. CIV P. 34.

In 1996, the Washington State Bar Association Court Rules and Procedures Committee recommended amendment to the second paragraph of CR 34(b) to conform to a change introduced into FED. R. CIV P. 34 in 1993. The proposed amendment was intended to make clear that ifa request for production is objectionable inpart, production should take place with respect to the unobjectionable portions nonetheless. The Supreme Court approved the amendment, which became effective on September 1, 1997.

CR 34 was substantially amended, effective September 1, 2013, to address the discovery of electronically stored information. The amendment introduced the phrase "electronically stored information" for the first time and also addressed format of production issues related to electronic discovery, including providing a framework for resolving disagreement on that topic between the parties. Specifically, the rule was amended as follows:

RULE 34. PRODUCINGTION OF DOCUMENTS,
ELECTRONICALLY STORED INFORMATION. AND
THINGS AND OR ENTRY UPON ONTO LAND FOR
INSPECTION AND OTHER PURPOSES

(a) Scope. Any party may serve on any other party a request within the scope of Rule 26(b):

(1) to produce and permit the requesting party making the request, or the party's representative someone acting on his behalf, to inspect, and copy, test, photograph, record, measure, or sample the following items in the responding party's possession, custody, or control: any designated documents, electronically stored information, or things—(including writings, drawings, graphs, charts, photographs, phonorecords sound recordings, images. and other data or data compilations—stored in any medium from which information can be obtained, translated either directly or. if necessary, after translation or conversionby the respondent through detection devices responding party into a reasonably usable form);; or to inspect and copy, test, or sample any tangible things which constitute or contain matters within the scope of Rule 26(b) and which are in the possession, custody or control of the responding party upon whom the request is served; or

(2) to permit entry upon onto designated land or other property in the possession possessed or controlled by the responding party, so that the requesting party may of the party upon whom the request is served for the purpose of inspection^ and measuring, surveying, photographing, testing, or samplemg the property or any designated object^ process, or operation on it thereon, within the scope of rule 26(b).

(b) Procedure.

(1) Service. The request may, without leave of court, be served upon the plaintiff after the summons and a copy of the complaint are served upon the defendant, or the complaint...