Why I Love Rule 36, and Why You Should Too

Requests to admit are the Rodney Dangerfield of pretrial procedure—they get no respect. Even though the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure include requests to admit under the “discovery and disclosures” subsection, some courts have said that they are not technically a discovery device. E.g., Nat’l Semiconductor Corp. v. Ramtron Int’l Corp., 265 F. Supp. 2d 71, 74 (D.D.C. 2003). But even if they are not technically a discovery device, Rule 36 and state-law equivalents have a place in the discovery plan.