Practice Management

Discovery: Who to depose, and how to get ready.

By Dan Hull

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?

Full post as published by What About Clients? on November 24, 2008 (boomark / email).