§ 2034.220.Persons authorized to issue demand; time to make demand

This section sets the outer time limit for triggering the expert-exchange process described in Section 2034.210. No court permission is needed to serve the demand; any party can send it out on its own initiative, but the demand has to be timely, and the deadline is measured two different ways at once.

A party must serve the demand no later than the 10th day after the initial trial date has been set, or 70 days before that trial date, whichever of those two measuring points falls closer to trial. In a case with a short runway between the trial-setting conference and the trial itself, the 10-day trigger will usually control; in a case with a longer runway, the 70-day-before-trial deadline will usually be the tighter one. Either way, the rule pushes parties to demand the exchange early enough that the exchange date under Section 2034.230, and any later supplemental disclosures, still have room to happen before trial begins.