US · rules
D. Mass. L.R. 116.3
Discovery Motion Practice
(a) Letter Request for Discovery. Within 14 days of the completion of automatic discovery,
any party by letter to the opposing party may request additional discovery. The opposing
party shall reply in writing to the requests contained in such letter, no later than 14 days
after its receipt, stating whether that party agrees or does not agree to furnish the requested
discovery and, if that party agrees, when the party will furnish the requested discovery. A
copy of the discovery request letter and any response must also be filed with the clerk’s
office.
(b) Agreement to Provide Discovery. If a party agrees in writing to provide the requested
discovery, the agreement shall be enforceable to the same extent as a court order requiring
the agreed-upon disclosure.
(c) Explanation for Lack of Agreement. If a party does not agree to provide the requested
information, that party must provide a written statement of the basis for its position.
(d) No Need to Request Automatic Discovery. A defendant participating in automatic
discovery should not request information expressly required to be produced under L.R.
116.1, because all such information is required to be produced automatically in any event.
(e) No Motion before Response to Request. Except in an emergency, no discovery motion,
or request for a bill of particulars, shall be filed until the opposing party has declined in
writing to provide the requested discovery or has failed to respond in writing within 14
days of receipt of a written discovery request.
(f) No Motion before Conference with Opponent. Except in an emergency, no discovery
motion, or request for a bill of particulars, shall be filed before, the moving party has
conferred, or attempted in good faith to confer, with opposing counsel to attempt to
eliminate or narrow the areas of disagreement. In the motion or request, the moving party
shall certify that a good faith attempt was made to eliminate or narrow the issues raised in
the motion through a conference with opposing counsel or that a good faith attempt to
comply with the requirement was precluded by the opposing party’s unwillingness or
inability to confer.
(g) Timing of Motion. Any discovery motion shall be filed within 14 days of receipt of the
opposing party’s written reply to the letter requesting discovery described in subsection (a)
or within 14 days of the passage of the period within which the opposing party has the
obligation to reply pursuant to subsection (a). The discovery motion shall state with
particularity each request for discovery, followed by a concise statement of the moving
party’s position with respect to such request, including citations of authority.
(h) Multi-Defendant Cases. In multi-defendant cases, except with leave of court, the
defendant parties must confer and, to the maximum extent possible in view of any
potentially differing positions of the defendants, consolidate their written requests to the
government for any discovery. If a discovery motion is to be filed, the defendant parties
must endeavor to the maximum extent possible to file a single consolidated motion. Each
defendant need not join in every written request submitted to the government or filed in a
consolidated motion, but all defense requests and motions, whether or not joined in by each
defendant must to the maximum extent possible be contained within a single document or
filing.
(i) Timing of Response to Motions. The opposing party must file its response to all discovery
motions within 14 days of receipt. In its response, the opposing party, as to each request,
shall make a concise statement of the opposing party’s basis for opposing that request,
including citations to authority.
(j) Subsequent Requests. The procedure set forth in this rule shall apply to any subsequent
requests for discovery. When filing a discovery motion that is based on a subsequent
discovery request, the moving party must additionally certify that the discovery request
resulting in the motion was prompted by information not known, or issues not reasonably
foreseeable, to the moving party before the deadline for discovery motions, or that the delay
in making the request was for other good cause, which the moving party must describe with
particularity.
History
Adopted September 8, 1998; effective December 1, 1998; amended effective February 1, 2012.
Provenance
- Source
- www.mad.uscourts.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-18
- Edition
- fed-district-2026-09-18
- Content hash
f51d95da1b552cd2e8541723f485cef5e6e5c905ef93850c33a1161ac3797f22
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