Oral and Written Discovery in Civil Cases: Strategies for Avoiding and Responding to Recurring Deficiencies

This CLE course will identify and review solutions to the recurring and seemingly universal flouting of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and their state counterparts concerning written and oral discovery.

Discovery is often the most expensive phase of any lawsuit. Practitioners who know the rules and follow them have a substantial advantage over opposing counsel. They can obtain relevant information efficiently while minimizing unnecessary expenses because they know responses that are acceptable and objections that are subterfuge.

Parties make the process more onerous when they do not know or ignore the Federal Rules' requirements, such as by using form requests or "boilerplate" objections. This occurs in both written discovery, such as requests for production or interrogatories, and in depositions.

Even experienced attorneys continue to use noncompliant--often unhelpful--requests and respond with inadequate answers that risk waiving privileges and objections. Sometimes this is the result of using the wrong discovery tool, which increases unnecessary expense.

Listen as the panel reviews advanced topics in written and oral discovery under the FRCP.