Rule 35.Physical and Mental Examinations and Blood Tests of Persons

Rule 15-6-35 lets a court order a party to submit to a physical or mental examination, or a blood test, when that party’s physical or mental condition, or a party’s blood relationship to another person, is in dispute in the case. The court cannot order an exam on its own initiative; it takes a motion, a showing of good cause, and notice to the person who will be examined and to every other party or person involved. The resulting order must spell out the time, place, manner, conditions, and scope of the exam, and name who will conduct it.

Once the exam happens, either side can ask for the examining physician’s findings. If the examined party or the party against whom the order was made requests it, the party who arranged the exam must deliver a detailed written report covering the physician’s findings, test results, diagnoses, and conclusions, along with reports from any earlier exams of the same condition. After that delivery, the requesting party owes the same courtesy in return: on request, it must produce a like report of any exam of that condition, past or future, done at its own arrangement, unless it cannot obtain a nonparty’s report despite trying. The court can order a report produced on fair terms, and if a physician will not write one, the court can bar that physician from testifying at trial.

Asking for and getting the report, or deposing the examining physician, comes at a cost: it waives the examined party’s privilege over the testimony of every other physician who has examined, or later examines, that same condition, in that case or in any other case about the same underlying dispute. These report-sharing and waiver rules apply equally to exams the parties agree to on their own, unless their agreement says otherwise, and none of this stops a party from separately seeking an examining physician’s report or deposition through the ordinary channels of another discovery rule.