Also known as: undue financial and administrative burden · undue burden · undue hardship
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A limit on the duty to provide reasonable accommodations to a qualified handicapped individual. The sponsor of a program or activity need not take steps that would impose excessive financial costs or administrative difficulties on the sponsor.
Umar Underwood sought production of opposing counsel's interview summaries in a contract dispute. The producing party showed that locating and reviewing the notes would require hiring additional staff and diverting senior attorneys from trial preparation for weeks. The court denied the motion because the effort would create undue financial and administrative burdens.
Ulysses Ulrich, a mid-level engineer, was directed by superiors to meet with corporate counsel about pending litigation. The company argued that extending the interviews to every employee would generate massive coordination costs and scheduling conflicts. The court upheld the privilege claim because forcing broader access would impose undue financial and administrative burdens.
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Uliana Ustinova operated a small factory whose emissions reached neighboring homes. Experts testified that installing advanced filtration would require redesigning the entire production line at a cost exceeding annual profits. The court found the requested changes would create undue financial and administrative burdens and therefore denied the nuisance claim.
Una Unger requested emails from a legacy server system that had been decommissioned years earlier. The responding party demonstrated that restoring the servers and running targeted searches would require outside vendors and weeks of dedicated IT time. The court declined to compel production because the effort would impose undue financial and administrative burdens.
Usman Uddin moved for a protective order after receiving a request for twenty years of internal compliance records. The company showed that assembling and privilege-reviewing the files would require hiring temporary staff and halting normal business operations for a month. The court granted the order because the production would create undue financial and administrative burdens.
Uptown Apparel received a subpoena demanding production of five years of supplier contracts stored in multiple warehouses. The company established that locating, scanning, and reviewing the documents would require temporary employees and several months of work. The court quashed the subpoena because compliance would impose undue financial and administrative burdens.
The plaintiff must demonstrate that the requested accommodation can be achieved without imposing excessive costs or administrative disruption on the defendant. Courts weigh the financial outlay, staff time, and operational interference against the benefit to the plaintiff.
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No. The same phrase appears in discovery rules to describe when production of documents or electronically stored information may be excused because the cost or effort is too great.
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In nuisance cases the term supplies the second prong of the unreasonableness test. An intentional invasion is unreasonable only if the harm is significant and the defendant can practicably reduce it without undue financial and administrative burdens.
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Yes. After the producing party shows undue burden or cost, the requesting party may still obtain the material by demonstrating good cause under Rule 26(b)(2)(C) and accepting conditions the court may impose.
Affidavits detailing out-of-pocket costs, staff hours required, disruption to core operations, and the absence of less burdensome alternatives are typically sufficient.
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