Eight years have passed since the last major revision of the discovery provisions of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. During those years there has been a substantial amount of writing on the discovery rules.2 While much of it has been aimed at helping practitioners understand the rules, a large portion has been critical in nature, examining how well the rules are functioning, isolating their problem areas and making suggestions for reform. It was the purpose of the study on which this Report is based to survey and analyze that critical literature. The Report's first section sets out in detail the scope and methodology of the study. The second section identifies two common threads which emerge from the literature as a whole. The third section consists of a rule-by-rule analysis of the dissatisfactions expressed with the discovery provisions and of reforms proposed for those provisions. A final section briefly summarizes the study's findings and conclusions. 1 |