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November 24, 2008
Discovery: Who to depose, and how to get ready.
It’s supposed to be hard. That’s what makes baseball great.
--Tom Hanks, in a movie.
Even for "minimalists", intelligent discovery in a complex business case is hard, especially in its early stages, where you may be working a bit in the dark in the first few depositions. You need planning--which trial lawyers do not always love (planning is distasteful to us, like reading the directions, or inspecting a rental car)--and not just great instincts. For that reason, I liked this two-part article by Chicago's Stewart Weltman when it came out earlier this year, and I still like it: "Deciding Who To Depose", Part I and Part II. For early case discovery, I also like a short post WAC? wrote a while ago, "Informal discovery: save time, save money, get better results". How do you make each of the first few depositions a fact-finding and case-building triumph? And accomplish that without "feeding the monster"? Even when things go well, litigation is expensive and disruptive in unexpected ways.
Hey. Wait a second. Do we even need to take this deposition?
Posted by JD Hull at November 24, 2008 12:27 AM