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In this lesson, you will learn your options for responses to discovery and how each response may impact your case. You will also learn what privilege in litigation is, objections, and how to review what the other party shares during the discovery process.
Responding to and reviewing discovery
- Ways to respond to discovery
- Privilege
- Grounds for objections
- Responding to written discovery
- Reviewing discovery answers
- The motion to compel
Transcript
There are four main ways to respond to requests for discovery.
You can simply not respond. But consider this in light of your strategy and the consequences.
An untimely or non-response can be seen as a waiver of objections and privilege. Non-responses to admissions may be deemed admitted. Let\’s discuss the remaining choices.
You can claim privilege. Privilege allows a witness to refuse to provide evidence about a certain subject or to bar such evidence from being disclosed.
Work product privilege, for example, Barr\’s discovery of materials prepared by a lawyer in anticipation of litigation.
As a pro se party, you might be able to claim privilege on the same grounds. A claim of privilege requires a protective order, which instructs one party to cease discovery of a particular piece of information because that information is privileged.
You can object to discovery. That is, you can refuse to answer on the basis of relevance, ambiguity, claim of privilege, or other grounds. The party requesting discovery can file a motion to compel in response to objections, non answers, and inadequate responses.
You can answer the request as asked. If you do so, answer in a timely manner and truthfully, As shown here, respond to each individual request appropriately depending on the type of request.
Once you get discovery back, review what you have. Note objections, non-answers, inadequate answers, improperly redacted documents, missing pages, and so on. Determine when to file the motion and whether there is a precondition or prerequisite to filing it.
For instance, some jurisdictions require a good-faith effort to contact a responding party to request better discovery responses before filing a motion to compel.
For each non-answer, retype the specific discovery request, the response, and reasons for compelling further responses. Schedule a hearing on the motion.