New Civil Procedure Rules: What Practitioners Need to Know

New amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure will take effect on December 1. An advisory from Arnold & Porter outlines five areas where they will matter most to practitioners. A number of key procedural deadlines will change, with cases likely to move more quickly, and the concept of “proportionality” will be recast and seemingly get some teeth, although how sharp it’s hard to say. Among other changes: There will be revised limits on what a court can do when electronically stored information is lost. The amendments will apply to newly filed actions, but also to pending actions “insofar as just and practicable,” a caveat which the authors  expect will spawn some disputes.