Florida Discovery Rules: Methods, Deadlines, and Objections

Florida’s discovery rules, set out in the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure beginning at Rule 1.280, control how the two sides in a civil lawsuit exchange information before trial. Since a 2024 overhaul, each party must hand over key evidence automatically within 60 days of the complaint, and five additional tools — interrogatories, requests for production, requests for admission, depositions, and physical or mental examinations — are available on request.¹ Most written discovery carries a 30-day response deadline, and missing deadlines can cost you the issue, the evidence, or the case.

What You Can Ask For

Rule 1.280 lets you seek discovery on any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to a claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case.² Florida adopted this proportionality standard from Federal Rule 26(b)(1), and judges apply it the same way federal courts do.¹ The court weighs the importance of the issues, the amount in dispute, each party’s access to the information, and whether the cost of producing it outweighs the likely benefit.

The reach of a discovery request is wider than the reach of trial evidence. Information does not have to be admissible at trial to be discoverable.² An internal email a judge might later exclude as hearsay can still be fair game during discovery if it points toward other relevant proof.

Mandatory Initial Disclosures

Before either side sends a single interrogatory, Rule 1.280(a) now requires initial disclosures. This 2024 change is the biggest shift Florida discovery has seen in years. You have 60 days after the complaint is served, or after a party is joined, to produce the following unless a court order sets a different schedule:¹

Name, address, phone number, and email of each person likely to have discoverable information you may use, along with the subjects they know about.
A copy or description, by category and location, of all documents, electronically stored information, and tangible items in your possession that you may use to support your claims or defenses.
A computation of each category of damages, with the underlying documents. You do not have to calculate noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering, but you must identify the category and provide supporting records.
A copy of any insurance agreement that could cover part or all of a judgment.

You cannot delay disclosure because your investigation is incomplete or because the other side has not sent theirs.² You disclose based on what is reasonably available. If you object to one category, you still owe the rest on time. The penalty for skipping this step is sharp: a witness or document you fail to disclose generally cannot be used later at a hearing or at trial.

The Five Discovery Tools

Interrogatories

Interrogatories under Rule 1.340 are written questions the other party must answer in writing and under oath. Florida caps them at 30 total, including subparts, unless a judge grants permission for more.³ Five broad questions with six subparts each will eat the whole allotment, so experienced litigators draft tightly.

The responding party has 30 days after service to answer or object. A defendant who has just been served with the lawsuit gets 45 days.³ An interrogatory is not objectionable just because it calls for an opinion or asks about something outside the answering party’s personal knowledge.

Requests for Production

Rule 1.350 lets you demand documents, electronically stored information, and tangible items for inspection and copying. It covers paper contracts, digital files, photographs, audio recordings, and data compilations, and it can require permission to enter land for inspection.⁴ Each request must describe what you want with enough specificity that the other side understands the target. “All documents related to the accident” invites a fight; “all photographs taken at the intersection of Main and Oak between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. on June 12, 2025” does not.

The responding party has 30 days to serve a written response, or 45 days for a newly served defendant.⁵ The response must state whether production will occur as requested or set out specific objections. Florida courts routinely reject boilerplate objections like “overly broad and unduly burdensome” that come without explanation.

Requests for Admission

Requests for admission under Rule 1.370 are the sharpest tool in the box and the one that catches the most people off guard. You serve written statements asking the other party to admit or deny that specific facts are true, that certain documents are genuine, or how the law applies to certain facts.⁶

If the other party does not respond within 30 days, every statement in the request is automatically deemed admitted.⁵ Once admitted, a matter is treated as established fact in the case. Withdrawing a deemed admission requires a motion, and the court will only allow it if withdrawal helps resolve the case on the merits and the requesting party will not suffer unfair prejudice. Missing this deadline can effectively hand the other side summary judgment on key issues.

Depositions

A deposition is live, sworn testimony taken outside the courtroom and recorded for later use. Florida recognizes two types: oral depositions under Rule 1.310, where an attorney asks questions in real time, and written depositions under Rule 1.320, where an officer reads pre-drafted questions to the witness.⁷ Oral depositions dominate in practice because they permit follow-up.

To schedule a deposition, you give reasonable written notice to every other party. If the witness is not a party, you serve a subpoena to compel attendance, and the subpoena can also require the witness to bring documents.⁷ An authorized officer administers the oath, and the testimony is recorded stenographically or audiovisually. Remote video depositions are permitted under Rule 1.310(b)(7) when the parties agree or the court orders it.

Physical and Mental Examinations

When a party’s physical or mental condition is genuinely at issue, Rule 1.360 lets the opposing party request an independent examination by a qualified expert. This is common in personal injury and family law cases. A physical exam of a plaintiff can be requested without a court order; a mental exam or any non-physical exam requires a court order after notice to the person to be examined and all parties. The requesting party must show good cause, and the request must state the time, place, scope, and examiner.

The party being examined has 30 days to respond, or 45 days for a newly served defendant. Someone who submits to an exam is entitled to a copy of the examiner’s detailed written report, including findings, diagnoses, and test results.

Response Deadlines and Time Computation

Nearly every written discovery tool in Florida carries a 30-day response deadline, with 45 days for a defendant who has just been served. That applies to interrogatories, requests for production, requests for admission, and examination requests. A court can shorten or lengthen any of these on motion.

Time is counted under Rule 1.090, which incorporates Rule 2.514 of the Rules of General Practice and Judicial Administration. Exclude the day of service, then count every calendar day, weekends and holidays included. If the last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or court holiday, the period runs to the end of the next day that is not one of those. Florida no longer excludes weekends from short periods; every deadline counts straight through the calendar.

Then there is the discovery cutoff. The court’s case management order sets a date by which all discovery must be complete. Your interrogatories therefore need to go out at least 30 days before that cutoff so the other side has time to respond. Judges give little sympathy to parties who serve requests too late for the responses to come in on time.

What’s Off-Limits

Two protections shield material from discovery even when it would otherwise be relevant.

Attorney-client privilege covers confidential communications between you and your lawyer for the purpose of obtaining legal advice. It protects the communications, not the underlying facts. If you told your lawyer about a conversation with a coworker, the other side cannot demand your lawyer’s notes of what you said, but they can still ask you directly about the conversation itself.

The work product doctrine, found in Rule 1.280, protects documents and materials prepared in anticipation of litigation by a party or their representative.² The other side can overcome this protection only by showing it needs the materials to prepare its case and cannot get the equivalent information elsewhere without undue hardship. Even when a court orders work product produced, it must still protect the attorney’s mental impressions, conclusions, and legal theories. That inner core is nearly untouchable.

Withholding is not enough on its own. Rule 1.280 requires you to identify each withheld item and describe it in enough detail that the other side can evaluate the claim.² In practice, that means a privilege log listing the date, author, recipients, subject matter, and basis for withholding each document. Sloppy logging can lead a court to find the privilege waived entirely.

Protective Orders

If a request threatens to expose trade secrets, cause undue expense, or create embarrassment, Rule 1.280(c) lets you ask for a protective order. Good cause requires more than annoyance. The court has broad discretion to shape the relief:⁸

Blocking the discovery entirely.
Limiting the scope, method, timing, or location.
Restricting who may see the information, often to attorneys and retained experts.
Sealing depositions or filings so they can be opened only by court order.
Shielding trade secrets and confidential commercial information from disclosure or allowing it only in a controlled way.

Filing a motion for protection before the response deadline preserves your rights while the court sorts out the dispute.

When the Other Side Won’t Comply

When responses do not arrive, or arrive evasive and incomplete, your remedy is a motion to compel under Rule 1.380. Before you file, Florida requires a good-faith certification stating in writing that you tried to resolve the dispute with the other side first. Courts take that requirement seriously, and motions filed without it are often denied on procedural grounds.

If the court grants the motion and the other side still refuses, sanctions escalate. Under Rule 1.380(b)(2), a judge can:

Treat disputed facts as established in favor of the party who sought discovery.
Prohibit the noncompliant party from supporting or opposing certain claims, or from introducing specific evidence.
Strike pleadings in whole or in part.
Stay the case until the order is obeyed.
Dismiss the case or enter a default judgment.
Hold the noncompliant party in contempt.

On top of any of those, the court must order the noncompliant party or their attorney to pay the other side’s reasonable expenses and attorney’s fees caused by the failure, unless the noncompliance was substantially justified or a fee award would be unjust. Fee-shifting alone often produces compliance, because litigating a discovery dispute can cost more than simply producing the documents.

Family Law Cases Follow a Different Rule

The rules described above govern civil discovery generally. Florida family law cases, including divorce, child support, alimony, and equitable distribution, run under Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.285, which requires automatic exchange of detailed financial information — financial affidavits, tax returns, and account statements — without a request.⁹ If your case is a family law matter, plan around that separate regime.

1
Supreme Court of Florida. In Re Amendments to Florida Rules of Civil Procedure
2
Fastcase. Florida Rules of Civil Procedure 1.280 – General Provisions Governing Discovery
3
The Florida Bar. Proposed Amendments to Rules of Civil Procedure 1.340, 1.350, and 1.380
4
The Florida Bar. Proposed Amendments to Rules of Civil Procedure 1.350 and 1.370
5
The Florida Bar. Florida Rules of Civil Procedure
6
Supreme Court of Florida. In Re Amendments to Florida Rules of Civil Procedure 1.350 and 1.370
7
The Florida Bar. Rule 1.310 – Depositions Upon Oral Examination
8
Supreme Court of Florida. Florida Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 1.280(c)
9
Florida Courts. Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure 12.285 – Mandatory Disclosure