Texas Administrative Code › Title 1 - ADMINISTRATION › Part 7 - STATE OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS › Chapter 155 - RULES OF PROCEDURE › Subchapter F - DISCOVERY › Section 155.255 - Written Discovery

Current through Reg. 49, No. 28; July 12, 2024
(a) Forms of
				  written discovery. Unless otherwise provided by this section or ordered by the
				  judge, parties may use the forms of written discovery provided by the TRCP,
				  with the following modifications:
(1) Requests
				  for production. Each party may serve no more than 25 written requests for
				  production. Each discrete subpart of a request for production is considered a
				  separate request for production.
(2) Interrogatories. Each party may serve no
				  more than 25 written interrogatories, excluding interrogatories asking a party
				  only to identify or authenticate specific documents. Each discrete subpart of
				  an interrogatory is considered a separate interrogatory.
(3) Requests for admissions. Each party may
				  serve no more than 25 requests for admissions. Requests for admissions may be
				  used only to address jurisdictional facts or the genuineness of any documents
				  served with the request.
(4)
				  Requests for disclosure.
(A) The discovery
				  rules of the TRCP requiring initial disclosures without awaiting a discovery
				  request do not apply to a contested case under SOAH's jurisdiction, except as
				  may be ordered or allowed by the judge.
(B) A party may request disclosure of
				  documents or information that the opposing party has in its possession,
				  custody, or control, including, but not limited to, the following:
(i) the correct names of the parties to the
				  contested case; the name, address, and telephone number of any potential
				  parties;
(ii) a general description
				  of the legal theories and the factual bases of the responding party's claims or
				  defenses, if not already set forth in a pleading or document filed in the
				  record of the proceeding at SOAH;
(iii) the name, address, and telephone number
				  of persons having knowledge of relevant facts, and a brief statement of each
				  identified person's connection with the case;
(iv) the statement of any person with
				  knowledge of relevant facts (witness statement) regardless of when the
				  statement was made; and
(v) a copy,
				  or description by category and location, of all documents, electronic
				  information, and tangible items that the disclosing party has in its
				  possession, custody or control and may use to support its claims or defenses,
				  unless the use would be solely for impeachment. A request for disclosure made
				  pursuant to this subsection is not considered a request for
				  production.
(5) Expert Disclosures and Reports. Upon
				  request of the opposing party, or as otherwise ordered or allowed by the judge,
				  a party must timely provide the following disclosures for any testifying expert
				  in advance of a scheduled hearing on the merits:
(A) the expert's name, address, and telephone
				  number;
(B) the subject matter on
				  which the expert will testify;
(C)
				  the general substance of the expert's mental impressions and opinions and a
				  brief summary of the basis for them, or if the expert is not retained by,
				  employed by, or otherwise subject to the control of the responding party,
				  documents reflecting such information;
(D) if the expert is retained by, employed
				  by, or otherwise subject to the control of the responding party:
(i) all documents, tangible things, reports,
				  models, or data compilations that have been provided to, reviewed by, or
				  prepared by or for the expert in anticipation of the expert's
				  testimony;
(ii) the expert's
				  current resume and bibliography;
(iii) the expert's qualifications, including
				  a list of all publications authored in the previous 10 years;
(iv) a list of all other cases in which,
				  during the previous four years, the expert testified as an expert at trial or
				  by deposition; and
(v) a statement
				  of the compensation to be paid for the expert's study and testimony in the
				  case.
(E) If the
				  discoverable factual observations, tests, supporting data, calculations,
				  photographs, or opinions of an expert have not been recorded and reduced to
				  tangible form, the judge may order these matters reduced to tangible form and
				  produced, in addition to the deposition of the expert.