IN RE: AMENDMENTS TO FLORIDA RULE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE 1.280(F). (2025)

The Florida Bar's Civil Procedure Rules Committee filed a report proposing amendments to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.280 (General Provisions Governing Discovery).¹ We adopt the amendments to rule 1.280(f) (Timing and Sequence of Discovery) as proposed by the Committee.

In our recent opinion adopting civil case management amendments, the Court added the following sentence to rule 1.280(f): “A party may not seek discovery from any source before that party's initial disclosure obligations are satisfied, except when authorized by stipulation or by court order.” In re Amends. to Fla. Rules of Civ. Proc., 402 So. 3d 925 (Fla. 2024). The Committee reports that litigants are refusing to respond to discovery requests on the basis that initial disclosure obligations have not been “satisfied,” despite service of initial disclosures. To avoid any unnecessary delay, we now replace the phrase “party's initial disclosure obligations are satisfied” in rule 1.280(f) with “party's initial disclosures are served on the other party.”² Incomplete and inadequate initial discovery disclosures are addressed in Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.380(d) (Failure to Disclose or to Supplement an Earlier Response).

The Florida Rules of Civil Procedure are amended as reflected in the appendix to this opinion. New language is indicated by underscoring in the appendix, and deletions are indicated by struck-through type. The amendments shall become effective immediately.

It is so ordered.

APPENDIX

RULE 1.280. GENERAL PROVISIONS GOVERNING DISCOVERY

(a)-(e) [No Change]

(f) Timing and Sequence of Discovery.

(1) Timing. A party may not seek discovery from any source before that party's initial disclosures obligations are satisfiedserved on the other party, except when authorized by stipulation or by court order.

(2) [No Change]

(g)-(k) [No Change]

FOOTNOTES

1.   We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 2(a), Fla. Const.; see also Fla. R. Gen. Prac. & Jud. Admin. 2.140(b).

2.   The Committee in this case also proposed amendments to rule 1.280(k) (Signing Disclosures and Discovery Requests; Response; and Objections), but we hereby ask the Committee to file a new report to separately address its proposed amendments to subdivision (k) in a new case.

PER CURIAM.

MUÑIZ, C.J., and CANADY, LABARGA, COURIEL, GROSSHANS, FRANCIS, and SASSO, JJ., concur.