Handling Federal Discovery

Description

Master Federal Discovery

Strengthen your discovery work with William Audet and Kimberly Fanady’s Handling Federal Discovery. Walk step-by-step through every discovery task, from setting discovery goals to deposing expert witnesses. The book’s unique task outline format provides practical instruction and sophisticated strategies that help you handle your opponent’s tricks and delay tactics. Organized by preparation task, it literally gives you the what, why, when, and how of moving a case through discovery, complete with practice tips and forms:

• What and why — The task is explained in plain English, detailing related rules and case law, along with the reasons for considering the task.
• When — A thorough discussion of the steps to be completed prior to beginning the task, along with deadlines for the task.
• How — The meat of the book, this section details each step necessary to effectively complete the task.  Includes defenses against the efforts of your opponent.
• Practice notes — Here you will find strategies, arguments, cautions, and advice learned from decades in the courtroom.
• Forms — Discovery motions, documents, letters, and memoranda.

This book gives you broad, organized coverage of essential federal discovery rules, practice tips and necessary forms that are applicable in federal and many state courts. Primary topics covered include:

• Planning and Investigation
• Privilege and Work Product
• Rule 26 Disclosure Requirements
• Interrogatories and Admissions
• Production Requests
• Non-Party Discovery
• Inspections and Examinations
• Depositions and Experts
• Compelling and Resisting Discovery
• Foreign Discovery, and more

Handling Federal Discovery is filled with practice tips. The book details over a hundred discrete tasks in a quick-reading outline format. The tasks are annotated with hundreds of case citation and practice notes to help you:

• Properly handle complex disclosure requirements
• Assert and oppose privilege claims
• Gauge the likely success of a motion or opposition
• Save money on depositions
• Determine the need for expert witnesses
• Properly conduct discovery in a foreign country
• Determine the applicability of new federal rules
• Win greater sanctions awards

REVISION 25 HIGHLIGHTS

Revision 25 of Handling Federal Discovery returns to an area of focus in Revisions 21and 22 and hones in on developments in the realm of e-discovery – an ever-evolving area of law and practice that has only hastened in the last few years with the pandemic, the associated remote work across all industries, and the continuing trend towards discovery information being available digitally. Extensive revisions have been made to Chapter 2 (“Preliminary Investigation”) because the importance of early identification, preservation, and collection of electronically stored information (“ESI”) in an age when routine electronic maintenance may result in the loss of important (and sanctionable) materials that need to be safeguarded.

Revision 25 also again adds nearly 100 new (and recently decided) cases, replacing older authorities that no longer reflect modern federal discovery practice or have since been rendered obsolete (including the impact from the June 2022 Supreme Court opinion that settled the Circuit split on issues of foreign discovery for tribunal purposes).
This revision further highlights the impact of e-discovery on different aspects of federal practice. Practitioners will find a dedicated focus on evolving jurisprudence as well as a guide/template for a modern ESI Protocol that accounts for needs of both plaintiffs and defendants. New Form 32.1 covers almost all areas of potential negotiation in an ESI
Protocol. It allows practitioners to evaluate what to include (or not) depending on the needs of their case and will help
practitioners anticipate disputes while successfully navigating federal discovery.

Some key developments covered include: 

PLANNING DISCOVERY 

• Determine Discovery Goals (Task 1) 

PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION 

• Reviewing Client’s Documents (Task 8)• Litigation Hold Preservation Notice (Non-
  corporate Client) (New Form 3A)

PRIVILEGE & WORK PRODUCT 

• Assert Attorney-Client Privilege (Task 12)

DISCLOSURES 

• Make Initial Disclosures (Task 23)
• Supplement Disclosures (Task 28)

INTERROGATORIES 

• Propound Interrogatories (Task 30)

REQUESTS FOR PRODUCTION 

• Propound Requests to Produce (Task 36)
• Respond to Requests to Produce (Task 37)
• Produce and Inspect Documents and Things (Task 38)

NON-PARTY DISCOVERY 

• Prepare Subpoenas (Task 40)

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL EXAMINATIONS

      • Request Examination (Task 47)

REQUEST FOR ADMISSIONS 

• Propound and Respond to Request for Admissions (Tasks 52-53)

DEPOSITIONS 

• Noticing Depositions (Tasks 57-58)

EXPERTS 

• Make Expert Disclosures (Task 73)) 

COMPEL, RESIST, & AMEND DISCOVERY

• Stipulated Electronically Stored Information
  (“ESI”) Protocol (New Form 32A)

FOREIGN DISCOVERY

• File Petition for Domestic Discovery in Aid of a
  Foreign Proceeding (Task 101)

ABBREVIATED TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 PLANNING DISCOVERY
CHAPTER 2 PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION
CHAPTER 3 PRIVILEGE AND WORK PRODUCT
CHAPTER 4 DISCLOSURES
CHAPTER 5 INTERROGATORIES
CHAPTER 6 REQUESTS FOR PRODUCTION
CHAPTER 7 NONPARTY DISCOVERY
CHAPTER 8 REQUESTS FOR ENTRY AND INSPECTION
CHAPTER 9 REQUESTS FOR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL EXAMINATIONS
CHAPTER 10 REQUESTS FOR ADMISSION
CHAPTER 11 DEPOSITIONS
CHAPTER 12 EXPERTS
CHAPTER 13 COMPEL, RESIST AND AMEND DISCOVERY
CHAPTER 14 FOREIGN DISCOVERY
INDEX

ABOUT THE AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS

William M. Audet, J.D., LL.M., (h.c.), is the founding partner of Audet & Partners, LLP, plaintiffs-only law firm recognized for its aggressive and creative prosecution of hundreds of individual, small business, class action and complex litigation cases involving fraud, defective drugs and products, privacy and constitutional rights, environmental, employment, unfair business practices, shareholders’ rights and antitrust claims. He has won multimillion-dollar settlements on behalf of plaintiffs and has successfully tried civil rights cases in federal court.

Mr. Audet earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) (with highest honors) from Golden Gate University School of Law in 1984, where he was the Editor of the Golden Gate University Law Review and the student commencement speaker. In 1987, Mr. Audet obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from the University of Wisconsin School of Law. During his years at the University of Wisconsin, he taught as a clinical professor, and worked full time at the law school’s LAIP inmate legal services program as a supervising attorney to law students at the clinic. Mr. Audet also served as a staff attorney at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, as a law clerk to the Honorable Fern M. Smith, Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and as a law clerk to the Honorable Alfonso J. Zirpoli, Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. In 2013, Mr. Audet was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law (LL.D., h.c.) degree from the Golden Gate University School of Law in recognition of his significant contributions to the legal community and the law school itself.

Mr. Audet is a member of the California and Wisconsin bars and is admitted to practice before numerous federal district courts throughout the United States and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The author of two law review articles, Mr. Audet is a frequent contributor to the San Francisco bay area legal press. He can be reached at Audet & Partners, LLP., 711 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 500, San Francisco, California 94102, telephone:(415) 982-1776, fax:(415) 568-2556, e-mail: [email protected], website: http://www.audetlaw.com.

Kimberly A. Fanady. Her civil litigation practice includes representing corporate and individual clients infederal and state trial and appellate courts in the areas of contract and commercial disputes, creditors’ remedies, fraud, employment discrimination, wrongful termination, construction law, probate and trust litigation, and workout/settlement negotiation and documentation.

Prior to opening her solo practice in May 1996, Ms. Fanady practiced with Buchalter, Nemer, Fields & Younger in San Francisco from 1989 to 1996 and with Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in New York City from 1986 to 1989. She is a member of the California bar, a former member of the New York bar and a member of various federal courts in California and New York.

Ms. Fanady received her J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she served as Executive Editor of the Moot Court Board. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale University with a B.A. in English. She can be reached at the Law Offices of Kimberly A. Fanady, 55 New Montgomery St., Suite 618 San Francisco, California 94105, (415) 986-8467.

“David” Ling Y. Kuang (Contributor) is an associate attorney at Audet & Partners, LLP, where his practice focuses on the prosecution of products-liability class actions and other complex litigation cases. Mr. Kuang is active in both California state courts and federal district courts throughout the United States. Prior to starting at Audet & Partners, LLP, Mr. Kuang gained a wide breadth of judicial experience working withAssociate Justice Nathan D. Mihara in the California Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District and with Presiding Judge Thang N. Barrett in the Superior Court of California, Santa Clara County. Mr. Kuang’s judicial experience has been further expanded on the international stage, having clerked for the Honorable Sharon D. Melloy in the Hong Kong District Courts. Mr. Kuang received his J.D. from Golden Gate University, School of Law where he was an annual Faculty Scholarship Recipient, member of the Pro Bono Honor Society and president of APALSA, the school’s largest minority focused student bar association. Mr. Kuang also had the privilege to intern at Pacific Gas & Elecitric, Co’s (PG&E’s) in-house law department while he was in school. He can be reached at 711 Van Ness Ave., Ste. 500 San Francisco, CA 94102 or via email: [email protected], website: www.audetlaw.com.