§ 25-1273.01.Rules of procedure.

This short section is the source of authority behind Nebraska's civil discovery rules. It directs the Supreme Court to promulgate rules of procedure for discovery in civil cases, and it requires those rules to avoid conflicting with the laws already governing such matters. Rather than the Legislature writing every discovery mechanic into statute, this section delegates that rulemaking task to the Supreme Court, subject to that consistency requirement.

It also heads off a possible conflict between two bodies of Supreme Court rules. Rules that provide for the admissibility of depositions are not to be treated as conflicting with the Nebraska Evidence Rules, even though depositions and evidence admissibility might otherwise seem to sit in separate categories. The statute cross-references section 27-1103, part of the Nebraska Evidence Rules, to make that relationship explicit.

This section is the statutory backbone behind other sections in this chapter that mention "discovery rules promulgated by the Supreme Court," including the nonparty subpoena procedure in section 25-1273 and the out-of-state discovery subpoena in section 25-1237. Both of those mechanisms depend on rules the Supreme Court adopts under the authority this section grants.