§ 2016.020.Definitions

Discovery statutes lean heavily on a handful of recurring words, and this section pins down what each one means across the whole Act. An action includes both a civil action and a special proceeding of a civil nature, so the discovery rules reach beyond ordinary lawsuits into related civil proceedings. The court means the trial court where the action is pending, unless a particular section says otherwise.

Document and writing both point back to the broad definition already used in the Evidence Code, covering everything from paper records to photographs, sound recordings, and computer data. Electronic is defined functionally, covering any technology with electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, or electromagnetic capabilities, a deliberately open-ended list meant to keep pace with changing technology rather than freeze the law to one era's devices.

The most consequential definition is the last one: electronically stored information means information stored in an electronic medium. That short phrase is what triggers the Act's separate rules for producing, objecting to, and litigating disputes over email, databases, and other digital records, rules added to the Act well after its original 2004 enactment to keep discovery current with how information is kept today.