Rule 1.515.Physical and mental examination of persons

Rule 1.515 addresses a discovery tool with real personal stakes: a court-ordered physical or mental examination. It applies when the mental or physical condition of a party — including blood group — or of someone in that party's custody or legal control, is in controversy, meaning the condition is part of what the case turns on rather than a passing detail. In that situation, the court where the action is pending may order the party to submit to examination by a health care practitioner, or to produce the person in its custody or control for examination.

The rule builds in real safeguards before an exam can be ordered. The moving party must file a motion showing good cause, and the order can only issue after notice to the person who will be examined and to all parties. The resulting order must spell out the time, place, manner, conditions, and scope of the examination, along with who will perform it — this is not automatic discovery, and a court will not order an exam without a specific showing that it is warranted.

Rule 1.515 also broadened who can conduct the exam. As the official Comment explains, the rule expanded the pool of qualified examiners from physicians alone to any health care practitioner, reflecting how much medical evaluation now happens outside a doctor's own hands.