Check out my new guest post “The Hound of Boilerplate Objections,” analyzing Judge Andrew Peck’s opinion in Fischer v. Forrest (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 28, 2017) 2017 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 28102, available on the the Everlaw Blog. Here is an excerpt from the post:
Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck is one of the leading judges on ediscovery and a longtime Sherlock Holmes fan. Judge Peck’s opinion in the trademark and copyright case Fischer v. Forrest is a study in scarlet for those who make boilerplate discovery objections.1
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 34(b)(2)(B)-(C) was supposed to be the Reichenbach Falls to boilerplate discovery objections. Attorneys for years would make objections to a discovery request, highlight the objection, then copy and paste the same objection to every remaining discovery request. The 2015 Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were intended to solve this final problem of nonsensical objections that do not define scope or answer if all responsive data has been produced. However, like Sherlock Holmes’ villain James Moriarty, judges are still hounded by boilerplate objections.
Judge Peck has a “new wake up call” for attorneys in Fischer. As Judge Peck noted, “Despite the clarity of the no-longer-new 2015 Amendments, the Court still sees too many non-compliant Rule 34 responses. This case is the latest.”
For the complete article, please visit the Everlaw Blog.