Rule 34.Producing of documents, electronically stored information, and things or entry onto land for inspection and other purposes

Rule 34 is the request-for-production rule: the tool a party uses to obtain another party's documents, data, and physical objects, or to get onto land the other side possesses or controls. Rule 34(a) reaches broadly -- writings, drawings, graphs, charts, photographs, sound recordings, images, and other data compilations stored in any medium, including electronically stored information that the responding party may need to translate or convert into a reasonably usable form, along with things that can be inspected, copied, tested, or sampled. It separately covers entry onto designated land or other property in the responding party's possession or control, so the requesting party can inspect, measure, survey, photograph, test, or sample the property or something on it.

Requests move on the same clock as interrogatories: a request can reach the plaintiff once the defendant is served with the summons and complaint, or the complaint is filed, whichever happens first, and any other party with or after service of the summons and complaint, with no need for advance court permission. The request must describe what is sought, item by item or by category, with reasonable particularity, must propose a reasonable time, place, and manner for the production or inspection, and may specify the form or forms in which electronically stored information should be produced.

The responding party has 30 days to serve a written response, or 40 days if that party is a defendant responding after service of the summons and complaint, though the parties can stipulate to a different schedule or the court can allow more or less time. Rule 34(b)(3) requires the response to address each item or category individually: either state that the requested inspection will be permitted, or state a specific objection and the reasons for it. An objection to part of a request has to identify that part and still permit inspection of the rest -- there is no blanket objection to an entire request. For electronically stored information, the responding party can object to a requested format, but if it does, or if the request never specified one, it has to say what format or formats it intends to use instead.

Once production is not in dispute, Rule 34(b)(3)(F) sets the mechanics: documents and electronically stored information get produced as they are kept in the ordinary course of business, or organized and labeled to match the categories in the request; electronically stored information for which the request specified no format goes out in the form it is ordinarily maintained in, or another reasonably usable form; and absent a stipulation or court order, a party need not produce the same electronically stored information in more than one form. Rule 34(c) makes clear this rule does not replace the option of a separate action, or a subpoena under Rule 45, against someone who is not a party but holds documents or things or controls land the requesting party needs to reach.