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Discovery Strategies in Personal Injury Litigation Under Amended Rules 26(b) and 34(b)

Drafting or Responding to Interrogatories, Requests for Production of Documents or Admission of Facts, and Third-Party Subpoenas

Recording of a 90-minute CLE webinar with Q&A

This program is included with the Strafford CLE Pass. Click for more information.
This program is included with the Strafford All-Access Pass. Click for more information.

Conducted on Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Recorded event now available

or call 1-800-926-7926

This CLE course will guide personal injury litigators in drafting discovery requests likely to survive heightened judicial scrutiny under recent amendments to Rule 26(b) of the FRCP. The panel will also discuss tactics for objecting to discovery requests that are overly burdensome and producing documents and electronically stored information in a timely manner as required by amended Rule 34(b).

Description

Since the recent amendments to Rule 26(b) of the FRCP, litigators have increasingly raised proportionality arguments to support their discovery requests and to object to opposing counsel’s discovery requests. Courts have emphasized that parties need to rein in broad discovery requests.

Litigators must justify any discovery request beyond the direct circumstances of the claim and damages sought. The court may narrow or quash interrogatories, requests for production of documents, requests for admissions, and third-party subpoenas for information sought to demonstrate similar conduct or prior complaints if the burden of production outweighs the likely benefit.

Drafting discovery requests likely to withstand burden and proportionality challenges and crafting objections to broad discovery requests are critical skills for personal injury litigators. Litigators must master objecting to Rule 34 requests with specificity and responding to early requests for production within a “reasonable time."

Counsel must also be aware of the penalties for failure to comply with Rule 34’s specificity requirement such as waiver of any noncompliant objection.

Listen as our authoritative panel discusses how courts are interpreting and applying the 2015 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and best practices for personal injury litigators for drafting and responding to discovery requests.

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Outline

  1. FRCP amendments and requirements: an overview
  2. Recent case law
  3. Drafting discovery requests
  4. Responding/objecting to discovery requests

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key issues:

  • When drafting discovery requests, what should personal injury counsel consider to ensure that requests meet the proportionality standard?
  • When responding to early requests for production, what is the standard for specificity for litigators’ objections?
  • What constitutes “reasonable time” for producing information?
  • How does case law establish when the burden or expense of obtaining discovery outweighs the likely benefit?

Faculty

Antezana, Patricia
Patricia E. Antezana
Counsel
Reed Smith

Ms. Antezana focuses her practice on general litigation, including commercial matters, business torts and product...  |  Read More

Gross, Andrew
Andrew D. Gross
Attorney
Kosieradzki Smith Law Firm

Mr. Gross focuses on medical malpractice cases, nursing home abuse and neglect cases, civil rights actions, and...  |  Read More

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