Rule 34.Producing Documents, Electronically Stored Information, and Tangible Things, or Entering onto Land, for Inspection and Other Purposes

Rule 34(a) lets a party serve a request, within the scope Rule 26(b) allows, to inspect, copy, test, or sample documents and electronically stored information — writings, drawings, photographs, sound recordings, and similar data in any medium — or tangible things in the responding party's possession, custody, or control. The same request can seek entry onto land or property the responding party possesses or controls, so the requesting party can inspect, measure, survey, photograph, test, or sample it or anything on it.

Rule 34(b) governs how the request and response work. The request must describe each item or category with reasonable particularity, propose a reasonable time, place, and manner for the inspection, and may specify the form for producing electronically stored information. The response is due within 30 days of service, except that a defendant gets 45 days after being served with the summons and complaint, and the District of Columbia or the United States, or their officers or agencies, get 75 days, all subject to a different period by stipulation under Rule 29 or court order. For each item or category, the response must either agree to the inspection as requested or state the grounds for objecting with specificity, and it must say whether any responsive material is being withheld on the basis of an objection — an objection to only part of a request must specify which part and still permit inspection of the rest. The responding party can offer to produce copies instead of allowing inspection, so long as it completes that production by the time specified for inspection or another reasonable time it states in the response. If a request does not specify a form for electronically stored information, or if the responding party objects to the form requested, the response must say what form the party intends to use instead. As with interrogatories, D.C. Superior Court requires responses and objections to production requests to quote each request in full immediately before responding to it.

Once production is agreed to, Rule 34(b)(2)(E) requires documents to be produced as they are ordinarily kept in the course of business or organized and labeled to match the request's categories, and electronically stored information to be produced in the form it is ordinarily maintained in or a reasonably usable form if the request did not specify one — with no obligation to produce the same electronically stored information in more than one form. A represented party requesting production must, on request, promptly transmit an electronic version of the request the other side can copy from directly, and a self-represented party can participate in that electronic exchange the same way Rule 33 allows, by filing a completed Civil Action Form 115.

Rule 34(c) makes clear this rule addresses production between parties; a nonparty can still be compelled to produce documents, tangible things, or permit an inspection, but only through a subpoena under Rule 45.