At any time after a formal grievance has been properly filed, the employee and/or the Administrative Office may obtain discovery regarding any matter not privileged that is relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending appeal by utilization of one or more of the following methods: requests for depositions, requests for interrogatories, requests for production  of documents or things, requests for permission to enter appropriate offices for the purpose of inspection and/or requests for admissions. Unless the Supreme Court Personnel Board rules otherwise, the frequency of use of these methods is not limited. All discovery requests are subject to the following provisions:

   1. Requests for discovery shall be addressed to the party from whom the discovery is sought, with a copy addressed to the Supreme Court Personnel Board through the Administrative Office.  such requests shall be sufficiently in advance of the scheduled hearing to allow for the accommodation of the time lines established below.

   2.  Responses to discovery requests must be provided within 10 workdays of receipt of request, unless objections are entered. Objections to such requests may be made only to the chairperson of the Supreme Court Personnel Board and must be made within 5 workdays of receipt of the request. The chairperson shall affirm or deny such objections within 10 workdays of receipt of the objections and shall establish time limits for response when objections are denied.

   3. Within 5 workdays of the receipt of the discovery requested, the requesting party shall notify the answering party of any failure on the part of the answering party to properly respond to the request.

   4. Except where objections to discovery requests are sustained, the failure to respond to any discovery requests may result in the answering party being denied the right to introduce the requested evidence or such other remedy as is deemed appropriate by the chairperson.  

   A copy of the Supreme Court Personnel Board's decision shall be forwarded to the parties involved. The original decision and all documents relating to the grievance shall be filed in the Administrative Office.

Amended September 17, 2003.