By Neta, founder of SortMyDivorce · Updated
A request for production is the discovery document that asks for paper rather than answers: bank statements, tax returns, deeds, text messages, anything the other side thinks will prove something. It arrives as a numbered list of categories, and the rules give you a fixed period to respond to each one. This guide is about what a response has to say, why the period is shorter than it looks, and how a careful response avoids the follow-up request that costs both sides another month. This guide is for the United States. Divorce cases run under state rules, but nearly every state's production rule follows Federal Rule 34, which is quoted here as the model. California, Texas, Florida and Illinois are covered specifically. In Canada the equivalents are the Notice to Disclose (Alberta), Form 13.1 and the Certificate of Financial Disclosure (Ontario) and Form F8 (British Columbia), each with its own guide.
| What it is | A written request that you produce documents, electronically stored information or things, in numbered items or categories. |
|---|---|
| The federal model | Rule 34(b)(2)(A): respond in writing "within 30 days after being served." |
| What a response says | Rule 34(b)(2)(B): for each item or category, either that inspection "will be permitted as requested" or "with specificity the grounds for objecting to the request, including the reasons." |
| Producing copies | The responding party "may state that it will produce copies of documents or of electronically stored information instead of permitting inspection." |
| California | 30 days after service of the demand (CCP 2031.260(a)); the period moves only on a motion. |
| Texas | 30 days after service; a Family Code defendant served before the answer is due has 50 days (Rule 196.2(a)). |
| Florida | 30 days after service; a respondent need not respond until 45 days after service of process and the initial pleading (Rule 12.350). |
| Illinois | The request itself sets the time, "not less than 28 days after service"; the producing party must file an affidavit of completeness (Rule 214). |
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Interrogatories get your version of the facts. A request for production gets the documents behind them. In a divorce, that means the records that establish income, property, debt and conduct: tax returns and notices of assessment, pay records, every bank and investment statement over a period, mortgage and loan documents, business records if you own a business, and increasingly text messages, emails and social media.
The request is drafted as categories, and the categories are drafted broadly on purpose. "All documents relating to any account in your name from the date of marriage to the present" is one item, and it may be several hundred pages.
Two things follow. The response is not a single act but an item-by-item accounting. And the time it takes is set by the slowest document in the list, not by the deadline.
The deadline. Rule 34(b)(2)(A): "The party to whom the request is directed must respond in writing within 30 days after being served or — if the request was delivered under Rule 26(d)(2) — within 30 days after the parties' first Rule 26(f) conference. A shorter or longer time may be stipulated to under Rule 29 or be ordered by the court."
The response, item by item. Rule 34(b)(2)(B): "For each item or category, the response must either state that inspection and related activities will be permitted as requested or state with specificity the grounds for objecting to the request, including the reasons. The responding party may state that it will produce copies of documents or of electronically stored information instead of permitting inspection. The production must then be completed no later than the time for inspection specified in the request or another reasonable time specified in the response."
Read that last sentence carefully. The written response is due in 30 days. The documents are due by the time the request specified, or by a reasonable time you state in the response. A response that says "will produce" and names no date has not fixed anything, and a response that names a date has made a promise.
California. Code of Civil Procedure section 2031.260(a): "Within 30 days after service of a demand for inspection, copying, testing, or sampling, the party to whom the demand is directed shall serve the original of the response to it on the party making the demand, and a copy of the response on all other parties who have appeared in the action, unless on motion of the party making the demand, the court has shortened the time for response, or unless on motion of the party to whom the demand has been directed, the court has extended the time for response." California calls it a demand for inspection rather than a request for production; the mechanism is the same, and the period moves only on a motion.
Texas. Rule 196.2(a): "The responding party must serve a written response on the requesting party within 30 days after service of the request, except that a defendant in a suit governed by the Family Code served with a request before the defendant's answer is due need not respond until 50 days after service of the request." Rule 196.2(b) requires the response to "state objections and assert privileges as required by these rules" with respect to each item or category.
Florida. Family Law Rule 12.350: "The party to whom the request is directed must serve a response within 30 days after service of the request, except that a respondent need not serve a response until 45 days after service of the process and initial pleading on that respondent. The court may allow a shorter or longer time. The response must state that the examination will be permitted as requested unless the request is objected to."
Illinois. Supreme Court Rule 214(a) puts the time in the request rather than in the rule: "The request shall specify a reasonable time, which shall not be less than 28 days after service of the request except by agreement or by order of court." Rule 214(c) then requires the served party either to identify and produce the responsive materials, "as they are kept in the usual course of business or organized and labeled to correspond with the categories in the request," or to serve written objections; and it adds something the other states do not: "The producing party shall furnish an affidavit stating whether the production is complete in accordance with the request." Rule 214(d) imposes "a duty to seasonably supplement any prior response."
One line per item, and every item gets a line. The federal rule's phrase is "for each item or category." A response that produces a stack of paper with no index leaves the other side to guess which item each document answers, and the follow-up request that produces is the expensive kind.
Say which of three things you are doing. For each item: producing as requested; producing in part and objecting to the rest, with the objection stated; or objecting in full, with reasons. There is no fourth option, and silence on an item reads as a refusal.
Produce as kept, or organised to the request. Illinois states the choice in the rule, and it is the right practice everywhere: either the documents come in the order you keep them, or they are labelled to match the numbered categories. Labelled to match is more work and produces fewer disputes.
Name a date for anything you cannot produce yet. Bank statements older than what is online, corporate records held by an accountant, and anything in a third party's hands take time. The response should say so, say what has been requested from whom, and give a date.
Do not produce beyond the request. Answer what was asked. Producing a category nobody requested does not earn goodwill; it hands over material the other side did not have to ask for.
Keep an exact copy of what you sent, with a list, and the date. A dispute about whether a document was produced is settled by that list. Illinois requires an affidavit of completeness; keeping the list is how you can swear to one anywhere.
Record the date and method of service. The period runs from it, in every jurisdiction above.
Count the days for your state. Thirty in most places; 50 in Texas and 45 in Florida if you are a newly served respondent; in Illinois, whatever the request says, but not less than 28.
Go through every item and sort it: have it, can get it, do not have it, object. That sorted list is the response in draft.
Start the slow requests the same day. Older bank statements, tax transcripts, anything from an employer, accountant or third party.
Send the sorted list to your lawyer inside the first week. The objections are the lawyer's work and have to be specific. The gathering is yours.
Fix a production date you can actually meet, and put it in the response. A date you keep is worth more than a shorter date you miss.
Verification note. New York's rule (CPLR 3120 and 3122) could not be read from an official source in this pass and is not summarised. The Illinois text was read from the Illinois Courts' published copy of Rule 214; the rule's provisions on electronically stored information are only noted here, not explained. Each state's procedure for a motion to compel, and its sanctions for non-production, are outside this page.
Under the federal model, both are addressed but they are not the same. The written response is due within 30 days of service. The production is due by the time the request specified or a reasonable time you specify in the response. State rules quoted above follow the same shape. Do not let a 30-day response deadline become the date you first look for the documents.
No. Federal Rule 34 requires the grounds for objecting to be stated "with specificity," including the reasons, for each item. Illinois allows an objection that the burden or expense would be disproportionate, but it has to be made as such. A blanket objection is the response most likely to produce a motion to compel.
Say so in the response, say what you have requested and from whom, and give a date. A document you do not have is not a document you are refusing to produce, but the response has to make that distinction clearly.
Texas gives a Family Code defendant 50 days if served before the answer is due (Rule 196.2(a)). Florida gives a respondent 45 days from service of process and the initial pleading (Rule 12.350). California and Illinois contain no such provision in the passages quoted above.
The federal and Florida rules quoted here do not require the production response itself to be sworn, unlike interrogatory answers. Illinois requires "an affidavit stating whether the production is complete in accordance with the request." Whatever the rule, a response is a representation to the court and to the other side, and an inaccurate one has consequences.
Interrogatories ask for written answers, under oath. A request for production asks for documents. They usually arrive together. The interrogatories guide covers the other half.
Last reviewed September 2026. Researched and written by Neta, founder of SortMyDivorce. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice — laws, fees and forms change, so please confirm current details with the official sources above or a local family lawyer.
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