§ 2024.030.Expert witnesses; time to complete discovery; motions prior to trial

Expert witnesses are often not identified until relatively close to trial, since the exchange of expert witness information under the chapter governing that process happens on its own separate timeline. Applying the general 30-day and 15-day cutoffs in Section 2024.020 to expert discovery would leave parties too little runway after an expert is named to depose that expert or otherwise discover the basis for the expert's opinions. This section fixes that mismatch by giving expert-related discovery its own, later window: completion up to 15 days before trial, with any motion concerning that discovery heard up to 10 days before trial.

The cutoff here runs on the same trial-date framework as the general rule, just compressed and shifted later so it lines up with when expert witnesses become known to the parties. It applies specifically to discovery pertaining to a witness identified under the expert-witness-exchange procedure; discovery not tied to an expert designation still falls under the general cutoff in Section 2024.020.