The Iowa Supreme Court Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure have proposed amendments to the Civil Rules of Procedure.  The proposed amendments primarily address the discovery of electronically stored information and mirror, in large part, the new federal rules concerning electronic discovery which became effective December 1, 2006.

The advisory committee will also be discussing a new Uniform Scheduling Order which will take into account the discovery of electronically stored information.

The Supreme Court Advisory Committee is currently seeking public comments.  The deadline for comments is May 1, 2007.  The email address for comments is rules.comments@jb.state.ia.us and must state "Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure" in the subject line.

As I have suggested in the past, this will make document retention policies a critical business practice for every Iowa business, large or small.