BarbriSFCourseDetails

Course Details

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.

Faculty

Description

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.

Outline

  1. Written discovery
    1. General objections
    2. Recurring issues with requests for production
      1. Identifying documents withheld
      2. Form of production
      3. Organizing production
      4. Document dumps
    3. Recurring issues with interrogatories
      1. Identifying records under Rule 33(d)
      2. Counting
      3. Verification
    4. Other issues
      1. Waiver of privilege and objections
      2. Meet and confer standard
  2. Depositions
    1. Overbroad notices
    2. Meet and confer requirement
    3. Recurring issues with 30(b)(6) depositions
      1. Unknowledgeable witness
      2. Location of deposition
      3. Right to know the documents reviewed by the deponent
    4. Undisclosed fact witnesses

Benefits

The panel will address these and other vital issues:

  • Can companies be forced to testify about litigation contentions?
  • What is the effective use of Rule 30(b)(5), and when is it abused?
  • Can counsel require a verified statement that the responding party has searched for responsive documents?
  • Does sending a letter and draft motion to compel fulfill the requirement to "meet and confer"?