In Re: Amendments to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.280(f)

• Court: Supreme Court of Florida
• Decided: June 19, 2025
• Docket: SC2025-0697
• Status: Published

Opinion

Supreme Court of Florida ____________

No. SC2025-0697 ____________

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

June 19, 2025

PER CURIAM.

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

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

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.

-2- It is so ordered.

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

THE FILING OF A MOTION FOR REHEARING SHALL NOT ALTER THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THESE AMENDMENTS.

Original Proceeding – Florida Rules of Civil Procedure

Cosme Caballero, Chair, Civil Procedure Rules Committee, Miami, Florida, Joshua E. Doyle, Executive Director, The Florida Bar, Tallahassee, Florida, and Heather Savage Telfer, Bar Liaison, The Florida Bar, Tallahassee, Florida,

for Petitioner

-3- 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]

-4-