Section 1.57 - Limitations on Discovery Requests(a) This section applies to proceedings brought pursuant to Texas Utilities Code, § RSA 103.055 and § RSA 104.102.(b) Upon request by a party, the presiding officer may limit discovery, by order, in the interest of efficiency and justice.(c) For purposes of calculating the number of requests for information (RFIs), each request or subpart shall be considered a separate RFI. Absent a showing of good cause, a reasonable limitation on RFIs propounded to a party is no more than 600 total RFIs, with no more than 75 RFIs propounded by a single party in one calendar week. Commission staff and presiding officers are not subject to these discovery limitations when Commission staff or the presiding officers issue the RFIs.(d) With regard to discovery propounded by a municipality or municipal coalition, to the extent that the utility first filed its request for relief at the municipal level and a municipal party has requested that the discovery propounded at the municipal level be updated, and the Commission is now considering the utility's request on appeal from the municipal forum, the number of RFIs (inclusive of subparts) that the municipality propounded at the municipal level shall count towards the total number of permissible RFIs a municipality may serve on the utility during the Commission proceeding on appeal, unless the utility updated its test year when filing its appeal.(e) If a party is not required to answer a question due to a sustained objection or withdrawal, that question may not be included in the calculation of the propounding party's RFI limit. However, if the presiding officer determines that a party is intentionally propounding frivolous, irrelevant, or otherwise objectionable requests, the question shall be included in the calculation of that propounding party's RFI limit.(f) As set forth in the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure 196 and 198, there shall be no limitation with regard to requests for production and inspection, or requests for admission.(g) The party propounding discovery shall separately characterize its discovery as an RFI, a Request for Production and Inspection, or a Request for Admission.16 Tex. Admin. Code § 1.57
Adopted by Texas Register, Volume 42, Number 33, August 18, 2017, TexReg 4136, eff. 8/21/2017