Rule 26 amendments – Extending greater work product protections

Description

Abstract: The first amendments since 1993 to the expert provisions of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 26 are scheduled to take effect Dec. 1, 2010. They were proposed largely in reaction to certain practices that critics argued reduced the effectiveness of expert work. This article explains how the new amendments extend work product protections to the discovery of testifying experts’ draft reports — with three critical exceptions.