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St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract

This article’s purpose is to provide a guide for properly using and responding to requests for admission under the Texas discovery rules. Requests for admission are an extremely effective discovery tool when used and responded to properly. Their use can save litigants considerable time and expense by eliminating and narrowing the issues involved in the cause of action. Often misunderstood, requests for admission are perhaps the least used of the major discovery devices available to litigants. Even though requests for admission have the potential to eliminate unnecessary proof at trial, streamline discovery and motion practice, and reduce pretrial and trial expenses, they are used much less frequently than other discovery devices because of a perceived inability to obtain substantive concessions through their use. Requests for admission are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they can streamline the action and reduce its costs, whereas, on the other hand, they can result in virtual ruin to the responding party. As a responding party, there are many hardships that come with a request for admission. The responding party faces virtual ruin if it fails to timely or properly respond to requests for admission. An untimely or improper response may result in an adverse judgment or may expose the responding party to evidentiary or monetary sanctions. Responding parties also face issues such as abuse by opposing parties by serving too many requests or by asking the responding party to admit clearly disputed facts underlying its claims or defenses to the cause of action.

Publisher

St. Mary's University School of Law

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