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Rule 194.1. Duty to Disclose; Production (2021)

TEXT

(a) Duty to Disclose. Except as exempted by Rule 194.2(d) or as otherwise agreed by the parties or ordered by the court, a party must, without awaiting a discovery request, provide to the other parties the information or material described in Rule 194.2, 194.3, and 194.4.

(b) Production. If a party does not produce copies of all responsive documents, electronically stored information, and tangible things with the response, the response must state a reasonable time and method for the production of these items. The responding party must produce the items at the time and in the method stated, unless otherwise agreed by the parties or ordered by the court, and must provide the requesting party a reasonable opportunity to inspect them.

Amended by order of Dec. 23, 2020, eff. Jan. 1, 2021.

Notes and Comments

Comment to 2021 change:

Rule 194 is amended to implement section 22.004(h-1) of the Texas Government Code. Rule 194 is amended based on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a) to require disclosure of basic discovery automatically, without awaiting a discovery request. A party is not excused from making its disclosures because it has not fully investigated the case or because it challenges the sufficiency of another party's disclosures or because another party has not made its disclosures. As with other written discovery responses, required disclosures must be signed under Rule 191.3, complete under Rule 193.1, served under Rule 191.5, and timely amended or supplemented under Rule 193.5.