Federal District Judge upholds objections to overly-broad discovery demands, noting that plaintiff could revise and narrow demands but declines to grant plaintiff specific relief.

This interesting litigation actually addresses a complaint of excessive idling against a school bus company, but the federal court correctly put the onus on the plaintiff to craft appropriate requests as opposed to common “kitchen sink” type demands. Two of the general topics the plaintiff sought discovery on were all data from vehicle data recorders as well as all information and documents related to “vehicle operation and/or idling violations.” The court actually disagreed with the defendant as to the relevancy of the topic rather than focusing on how the demands were “overly broad on their face and plainly disproportionate to the needs of the jurisdictional inquiry.” Rather than granting the plaintiff relief in the form of a limited response, the court denied the plaintiff’s application without prejudice to serve revised and “narrowly tailored” demands.

_{Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2023 is prepared by Marshall Dennehey to provide information on recent developments of interest to our readers. This publication is not intended to provide legal advice for a specific situation or to create an attorney-client relationship. Copyright © 2032 Marshall Dennehey, all rights reserved. This article may not be reprinted without the express written permission of our firm.}