South Carolina Requests for Production: Response Guide

Legal content overseen by Nathan Walter, Esq., attorney licensed in California (State Bar No. 313299).

You have client records to collect and South Carolina requests for production to answer.

Under South Carolina Rule of Civil Procedure (SCRCP) 34(b), the written response is due within 30 days after service of the request, except that a defendant may respond within 45 days after service of the summons and complaint on that defendant. The response must address each item or category and give reasons for any objection.

This guide covers civil actions governed by the SCRCP, not federal practice in the District of South Carolina, family court or administrative discovery. Our requests for production overview covers the general picture.

South Carolina requests for production under Rule 34

SCRCP 34(a) lets any party serve on any other party a request to produce and permit inspection and copying of designated documents or electronically stored information (ESI), or to inspect, copy, test or sample tangible things, or to enter land or other property for inspection. Documents and tangible things must be within the scope of Rule 26(b) and in the possession, custody or control of the party served. This article concentrates on documents and ESI.

What can a party request?

A request for production seeks existing items for inspection and copying. Written questions are interrogatories, covered in our South Carolina interrogatories guide.

Scope comes from SCRCP 26(b)(1): parties may obtain discovery regarding “any matter, not privileged, which is relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action.” In a pedestrian collision case, that could include scene photographs or wage-loss records. Whether a record is discoverable depends on Rule 26(b), privilege and any court order.

Is there a numerical limit?

Rule 34’s text states no cap on the number of requests. That does not make discovery unlimited. Under SCRCP 26(a), the court shall limit discovery if it finds unreasonable duplication, a more convenient or less burdensome or expensive source, ample prior opportunity to obtain the information through discovery, or unreasonable burden or expense considering the case’s needs, amount in controversy, parties’ resources and importance of the issues.

Calendar the response and production dates separately

Rule 34(b) sets the written-response deadline separately from the “reasonable time, place, and manner” of inspection that the request must specify. A response saying inspection will be permitted is not the production, and the rule text states no second, universal production deadline.

Situation	Rule-text timing	Qualification
Ordinary party written response	Within 30 days after service of the request	SCRCP 34(b); the court may allow a shorter or longer time.
Defendant’s initial-service provision	Within 45 days after service of the summons and complaint on that defendant	SCRCP 34(b); not 45 days from every later request set.
Inspection and production arrangements	Reasonable time, place and manner specified in the request	SCRCP 34(b); separate from the written-response clock.
Qualifying mail or statutory-agent service	Five days added to the prescribed period	SCRCP 6(e); other delivery methods are not addressed here.
Weekend or holiday ending	Runs to the end of the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday or State or Federal holiday	SCRCP 6(a).
Written agreement of counsel	An additional period not exceeding the original period in the rules	SCRCP 6(b); not an unlimited extension by consent.

Rules 5, 6, 11 and 45 are collected on the South Carolina Judicial Branch civil rules page.

Identify service and the correct starting event

Under Rule 34(b), a request may be served without leave of court on the plaintiff after commencement of the action, and on any other party with or after service of the summons and complaint on that party. The 45-day provision runs from service of the summons and complaint, not from each later set of requests.

Under SCRCP 5(b)(1), service on a represented party is made on the attorney unless the court orders otherwise, and service by mail of later papers is complete upon mailing.

Apply Rule 6 before entering a due date

SCRCP 6(a) excludes the day of the event that starts the period and includes the last day, unless it is a Saturday, Sunday or State or Federal holiday, in which case the period runs to the end of the next day that is none of those.

An invented illustration: a request is hand-delivered on a Thursday, Day 0. Day 30 falls on a Saturday, so the response is due at the end of the following Monday, assuming an ordinary response, no court order or extension, and no holiday that Monday.

Rule 6(e) adds five days when the paper is served by mail or on a person designated by statute to accept service.

Record any extension

SCRCP 6(b) allows time to be extended by written agreement of counsel for an additional period not exceeding the original time provided in the rules. For cause shown, the court may enlarge the period on a request made before it expires; after expiration, a motion and good cause are required to permit the act.

Draft clear requests and map the responsive records

A plaintiff firm serves requests on the defendant and answers requests served on the plaintiff. Rule 34(b) requires a request to set forth the items to be inspected, by individual item or by category, and to describe each with “reasonable particularity.”

Describe items or categories with reasonable particularity

Rule 34 prescribes no fixed template, but it requires specified items or categories, reasonable particularity, and a reasonable time, place and manner of inspection. In practice, a request can name the subject (photographs of the intersection, payroll records for a stated employer), state the period covered and, if you want one, state an ESI form, which Rule 34(b) permits.

Map possession, custody or control before drafting

Rule 34(a) reaches items in the possession, custody or control of the party served. This guide does not analyze how South Carolina courts define control, and it assumes neither that control means physical possession nor that records held by a third party fall outside it.

A working map can record, for each request, the likely source, the records expected, the reviewer and the production status. Our guide on how to organize discovery documents covers collection.

Write an individual response for every item or category

Under SCRCP 34(b), the response shall state, for each item or category, that inspection and related activities will be permitted as requested, unless the request is objected to. If it is, the reasons for objection shall be stated, and if the objection is to part of an item or category, the part shall be specified.

Give reasons and identify any partial objection

Grounds available under Rules 26 through 37 are collected in our South Carolina discovery objections cheat sheet. Example 2 below names the portion objected to and permits inspection of the rest.

Unavailable and privileged material

A statement that no responsive documents exist is different from an objection, and Rule 34 does not prescribe wording for it.

Under Rule 26(b)(5)(A), a party that withholds otherwise discoverable information by claiming privilege or trial preparation protection “shall make the claim expressly” and shall describe what is withheld “in a manner that, without revealing the information itself privileged or protected, will enable other parties to assess the applicability of the privilege or protection.” That subsection states a standard, not a column format or a deadline. Whether a document is privileged is counsel’s determination.

Review signature and verification separately

Rule 34 calls for a written response and does not itself prescribe an oath or notarized verification. The signature rule for other papers is SCRCP 11(a): a paper of a represented party must be signed by at least one attorney of record admitted to practice law in South Carolina, with address and telephone number stated. Other requirements a court order or statute may add are outside this guide.

Example responses

The requests and responses below are invented illustrations, not court-approved forms.

Request No. 1: Produce all photographs of the incident scene taken on the date of the collision that are in your possession, custody or control.

Response to Request No. 1: Plaintiff will permit inspection and copying of the requested photographs as requested. The photographs identified to date are PL 000001–PL 000012.

Request No. 2: Produce all photographs of the incident scene and all business records of Delta Auto Supply, Inc.

Response to Request No. 2: Plaintiff objects to the portion of Request No. 2 seeking business records of Delta Auto Supply, Inc., a business with no relation to the dispute pleaded in this action, because those records are not relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action. Plaintiff will permit inspection and copying of the photographs described in the remainder of Request No. 2 as requested.

Example 3 assumes the request specifies no ESI form, the photographs are image files and the messages export as readable threads, each in a form ordinarily maintained or reasonably usable.

Request No. 3: Produce relevant photographs and text messages concerning the collision that are on Plaintiff’s phone.

Response to Request No. 3: Plaintiff will permit inspection and copying of the requested photographs and messages as requested. Because the request does not specify a form, Plaintiff states that it intends to produce the photographs as image files and the messages as exported message threads.

Organize documents and specify the ESI form

Choose usual-course production or category labeling

Rule 34(b) provides that a party who produces documents for inspection “shall produce them as they are kept in the usual course of business or shall organize and label them to correspond with the categories in the request.” Bates numbers are a practice aid, not a Rule 34 requirement; see our Bates numbering guide. A numbered request-to-Bates map is one way to organize and label by category, not a substitute for the rule.

Resolve the ESI-form question expressly

A request may specify the form or forms for ESI. If the responding party objects to the requested form, or the request specified none, the responding party must state the form or forms it intends to use.

Unless the parties agree or the court orders otherwise, a request that specifies no form is met by producing in a form in which the information is ordinarily maintained or a form that is reasonably usable, and a party need not produce the same ESI in more than one form. Neither PDF nor native format satisfies the rule in every case; the request, any agreement and any order control.

Separate accessibility from privilege

Under Rule 26(b)(6)(A), a party need not provide ESI from sources it identifies to the requesting party as not reasonably accessible because of undue burden or cost. On a motion, that party must make that showing, and the court may still order discovery for good cause. Privilege is a separate question under Rule 26(b)(5)(A).

Track later responsive information

Under SCRCP 26(e), requests under Rules 31, 33, 34 and 36 “shall be deemed to continue from the time of service until the time of trial of the action.” Information sought by those requests that comes to the knowledge of a party, its representative or attorney after the original answers “shall be promptly transmitted to the other party.” The rule says “promptly,” not a number of days.

Use the Rule 45 route for non-party production

SCRCP 34(c) provides that a person not a party “may be compelled to produce documents or things or submit to an inspection only as provided in Rule 45,” and it preserves an independent action against a non-party for production.

Two Rule 45 periods differ from the Rule 34 response period:

• Copy to the parties: Under Rule 45(a)(4), a subpoena for pre-trial production of documents, ESI or tangible things must be copied to each party under Rule 5(b) before it is served on the person to whom it is directed, at least ten days before the time specified for compliance.
• Objection window: Under Rule 45(c)(2)(B), the person commanded may serve written objection within 14 days after service, or before the compliance time if that is less than 14 days after service. This is an objection period, not a production deadline.

If the non-party objects, the serving party may inspect and copy only under a court order and may move, on notice to the non-party, to compel. This guide does not cover other Rule 45 provisions.

Address deficient responses and motions to compel

Setting each request beside the response and the production shows the gap: an omitted category, an objection without a stated reason, or an inspection that did not happen as requested. A three-column chart (request, response, production) is a workflow aid, not rule text.

Identify the precise production failure

Rule 34(b) says the requesting party may move for an order under Rule 37(a) about any objection to or other failure to respond, or any failure to permit inspection as requested. SCRCP 37(a) allows a party, on reasonable notice to other parties and all persons affected, to apply for an order compelling discovery. For Rule 34 requests, that includes an order compelling inspection in accordance with the request. Under Rule 37(a)(3), an evasive or incomplete answer is treated as a failure to answer. No rule text promises that a court will grant the motion.

Document consultation before motion practice

SCRCP 11(a) requires every motion to contain an affirmation that the movant’s counsel communicated with opposing counsel before filing and attempted in good faith to resolve the matter, unless counsel certifies that consultation would serve no useful purpose or could not be timely held. Rule 11(a) states no duty of consultation on certain motions, including motions to dismiss and for summary judgment, in real estate foreclosure cases, or with pro se litigants.

Consequences of a failed response

Different failures have different consequences:

• Expenses on a motion: Under Rule 37(a)(4), after opportunity for hearing, the court shall award reasonable expenses, including attorney’s fees, against the responsible party, advising attorney or both if the motion is granted or denied, unless the losing position was substantially justified or other circumstances make an award unjust. On denial, the responsible party is the moving party.
• Disobeying an order: Under Rule 37(b)(2), if a party fails to obey an order to provide or permit discovery, the court may make such orders in regard to the failure as are just.
• No written response at all: Under Rule 37(d), when a party fails to serve a written response to a Rule 34 request after proper service, the court on motion may make such orders as are just and shall require payment of reasonable expenses caused by the failure, unless it was substantially justified or other circumstances make an award unjust. The failure is not excused because the discovery is objectionable unless the party applied for a protective order under Rule 26(c).

Prepare production responses with Briefpoint

For a plaintiff firm collecting client records and drafting request-by-request responses, Briefpoint drafts responses and objections to requests for production. The output is editable in Microsoft Word, and attorneys keep final review of responsiveness, privilege, objections, signature and service. Briefpoint does not decide those questions for the firm.

Autodoc finds responsive documents, adds page-level Bates citations and builds a Bates-numbered production package. Client Bridge sends clients plain-language questions through a secure link so they can answer and upload documents for attorney review. Briefpoint also offers Supplemental Responses for later follow-up on a request. The discovery response drafting page describes the full set of drafting features.

Book a demo to see how Briefpoint can help your team prepare discovery responses.

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FAQs About South Carolina Requests for Production

How long do you have to respond to requests for production in South Carolina?

Ordinarily 30 days after service of the request under SCRCP 34(b). A defendant may instead respond within 45 days after service of the summons and complaint on that defendant, and the court may allow a shorter or longer time. Rule 6 governs counting, and Rule 6(e) adds five days for qualifying mail or statutory-agent service.

Can South Carolina requests for production include emails and text messages?

Yes, to the extent they are ESI within Rule 26(b) scope and in the responding party’s possession, custody or control. Rule 34(a) covers ESI, and the request may specify a form. If it specifies none, the responding party must produce in a form ordinarily maintained or reasonably usable, unless the parties agree or the court orders otherwise.

How must documents be organized for production?

Rule 34(b) gives two options: produce documents as they are kept in the usual course of business, or organize and label them to correspond with the categories in the request. The rule does not require Bates numbers. A Bates-numbered index mapping each request number to document ranges can be one way to organize and label by category.

Can you use Rule 34 to obtain documents from a non-party?

Not directly. Rule 34(c) provides that a person not a party may be compelled to produce documents or things or submit to an inspection only as provided in Rule 45, which governs subpoenas. For production before trial, Rule 45(a)(4) requires a copy of the subpoena to be served on each party before service on the recipient, at least ten days before compliance.

What is a request for production in South Carolina civil litigation?

It is a written request under SCRCP 34 asking another party to produce and permit inspection and copying of designated documents, ESI or tangible things within Rule 26(b) scope, or to permit entry on land or property for inspection. Interrogatories ask written questions; a request for production targets items in the responding party’s possession, custody or control.

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