§ 2017.010.Persons entitled to discovery; matters discoverable

This section is the foundation the rest of the Civil Discovery Act builds on. Absent a court order limiting things, any party may obtain discovery regarding any matter, not privileged, that is relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action, or to the determination of any motion made in it, so long as the matter is itself admissible in evidence or appears reasonably calculated to lead to admissible evidence.

Two features of that standard deserve attention. First, relevance is measured against the subject matter of the case, a broader net than relevance to the merits alone, and it is not limited to the discovering party's own claims or defenses; a party can seek discovery bearing on any party's claim or defense in the action. Second, the reasonably-calculated-to-lead standard means the matter sought does not itself have to be admissible at trial; it only has to be capable of leading somewhere useful.

The section also spells out what discovery can reach: the identity and location of anyone with knowledge of discoverable matter, and the existence, description, nature, custody, condition, and location of documents, electronically stored information, tangible things, land, or other property. Read together with Section 2017.020's proportionality limits, this section marks the outer boundary of what a party can ask for, while the following section gives courts a tool to pull that boundary in when the burden of a particular request outweighs its likely value.