Discovery

Authorities: Fed. R. Civ. P. 26; Fed. R. Civ. P. 35

Discovery Generally
Discovery is a term of art that we call the process of disclosure that is legally mandated by a court. It is a liberal regime of legal information gathering.

  • If a party doesn't want to give you information that was authorized by a court, then you have tools to make them hand it over.

  • The magic of discovery is that you can pry information from the hands of parties that really don't want to give it to you.

  • Many cases may turn on the law, but many cases turn on facts, and that's why discovery is so important.

Part of the task of discovery is deciding what info that you need to force from an opposing party and what info you can generally and informally gather.

  • You informally gather information because it's way cheaper than using attorney rates for depositions, motions, etc., costing your client less in net.

    • Ex: depositions are crazy powerful, but they also cost a ton fo money to do.

Discovery is a two-way street—they get things that they want, and you get things that you want.

  • It's important because the client needs to know that their secrets/information will likely be exposed to the other aprty.

    • Discovery is absurdly powerful, invasive, and costly.

      • This is because the main goal of justice is to adjudicate based upon facts and the truth; i.e., we need to know.

Discovery is powerful, but it has its limitations.

  • Discovery, for instance, is limited by the pleadings.

  • What happens after discovery? What is ti for?

    • You're prepping for a gunfight—a trial—and you're making ammo with discovery.

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