Discovery is how you gather the evidence you will need to prove your case as plaintiff, or defeat the plaintiff's case as a defendant. You use discovery to find out things like: What the other side plans to say about an issue in your case. What facts or witnesses support their side.
Unless otherwise limited by order of the court in ance with these rules, the scope of discovery is as follows: Parties may obtain discovery regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any party's claims or defenses and proportional to the needs of the case, considering the importance of the issues at ...
At any time after the filing of a joint case conference report, or not sooner than 14 days after a party has filed a separate case conference report, or upon order by the court or discovery commissioner, any party who has complied with Rule 16.1(a)(1), 16.2, or 16.205 may obtain discovery by any means permitted by ...
In representing a client, a lawyer shall not communicate about the subject of the representation with a person the lawyer knows to be represented by another lawyer in the matter, unless the lawyer has the consent of the other lawyer or is authorized to do so by law or a court order.
Discovery materials are, for the most part, understood to be public so long as filed with a court; otherwise, they are not necessarily accessible.
In certain cases, you might be able to write a letter to the other side and request the documents that you need. However, in more formal cases, you will likely have to draft more formal discovery demands. There are usually forms available for this in local law libraries, from the court clerk's office, or online.
In the United States, discovery is mostly performed by the litigating parties themselves, with relatively minimal judicial oversight. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure guide discovery in the U.S. federal court system.
If you want to file a motion, the process is generally something like this: You write your motion. You file your motion with the court clerk. The court clerk inserts the date and time your motion will be heard by the judge. You “serve” (mail) your motion to the other side.
Unless otherwise limited by order of the court in ance with these rules, the scope of discovery is as follows: Parties may obtain discovery regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any party's claims or defenses and proportional to the needs of the case, considering the importance of the issues at ...