Discovery
Under the Rules of Court in all of the local jurisdictions both parties in civil litigation are allowed to engage in discovery which is a process of sending each other written requests for information or documents in order to discover what the other partys case is about. Depositions are also a form of discovery.
The discovery process can become quite involved and contentious.There are sometimes disputes about the responses that a party may make to certain discovery requests. The federal courts have attempted to streamline the discovery process by requiring certain automatic disclosures that are to be made even though the other party makes no request for such.
The general thrust of the discovery process is to make a full disclosure so that both parties know all of the pertinent facts and can thereby make an intelligent decision as to whether they wish to proceed with the case,attempt to settle the case or simply try the case.
