On September 14, 2021, New York’s Administrative Board of the Courts issued a memorandum notice “seeking public comment on a proposal, proffered by the Commercial Division Advisory Council (“CDAC”), to amend Commercial Division Rule 11 to include a preamble about proportionality and reasonableness and to add provisions allowing the Court to direct early case assessment disclosures and analysis prior to and after the preliminary conference….” The Administrative Board observes that, “[t]he CDAC notes that proportionality and reasonableness must govern discovery in all cases’ … and CDAC states that similar provisions relating to early case assessment documents are utilized in other courts….”
The notice includes a June 30, 2021 memorandum from the CDAC to the Administrative Board with the proposed rule modifications, and the rationale for those modifications. The recommended modifications are not lengthy, and the full text can be found here.
For those wishing to comment, email comments can be sent to rulecomments@nycourts.gov or mailed to Eileen D. Millet, Esq., Counsel, Office of Court Administration, 25 Beaver Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10004. Any comments must be received by November 15, 2021.
This most recent request follows closely on the heels of another, more elaborate, set of proposed modifications to the Commercial Division’s rules addressing ESI, a copy of which can be found here. We will be posting more on that in the immediate future.
Our thanks to business courts pioneer Robert L. Haig for bringing these important developments to our attention.
