Common objections to Discovery Requests- Legal Lotus, Miami Trial & Family Lawyers

Legal Lotus, Miami Trial & Family Lawyers

As we've discussed previously, discovery is a process when one initiates a case then you have the right to ask for either certain documents through what's called "request for production" or you can also use what's called "interrogatories," and you require the other party to answer certain questions either in handwriting or through typing. Several objections can be made when "requests" are given or done, but we're going to touch base on a few very basic common ones that are easy to bring up, and we see them very frequently.

1. Relevance: In order for something to be considered part of the evidence, it has to be relevant, which means it has a tendency to prove or disprove the issue before the court. If it's a divorce case and one of the parties is asking for certain documents like bank statements that go back 30 years and have really nothing to do with the case, you can have several objections there, but you could definitely object as to relevance because why would you need something 30 years old before the marriage and has nothing to do with any of the assets and liabilities. It could apply to certain information that the other side is trying to fish for which has no tendency to prove or disapprove the issue. It all depends on the type of case. For example, if it's a civil case for breach of contract, and the other side is requesting bank statements that have nothing to do with your business and have nothing to do with what's the issue then you have a very good chance of objecting and succeeding on that objection. This all goes on a case-by-case basis, and of course, the judges always give discretion. However, relevance is standard. If it does not tend to prove or disprove the issue, then it is irrelevant; and if it's irrelevant, it's objectionable.

4. Overbroad: This is when you're asking for everything under the sun. Suppose you're asking for all business records that do not necessarily have to do with the breach of contract action; but have to do with every single contract that you've had. If it's still relevant to an extent, then you could have that objection as well, but whenever there are requests asking for all documents related to your business or something that's requesting all and not very specific, then you have a good chance of succeeding in an objection that's called "overbroad". If you're asking for something, that's almost presumed to be harassment because you're asking for someone to retrieve documents, and it depends on your jurisdiction, but the other party is given 30 days to produce these documents. If you're asking a lot of those documents and it's going to be hard to obtain, and you're not being specific. The other party can object, and chances are if you go to court, the judge will just ask you to narrow it down and clarify.

3. Privilege: The most common type of privilege is attorney-client privilege--which protects communication between the client and his/her attorney. Generally speaking anything that requests or solicits communication between an attorney and their client is protected.If you're requesting documents that show some sort of communication then that is an absolute protect. That document or whatever you're seeking is going to be protected by the attorney-client privilege. There are other privileges as well, and the attorney-client privilege is the one that we often see because that's a huge no-no.

4. Document doesn't exist:If you are requesting several documents that don't exist, then the other party will not be required to create this document just because you're asking for it. It just doesn't make sense. It's an undue burden on the other party. It's like you're pretty much asking the other party to do the work for you. If it doesn't exist, you cannot require the other party to create a document to comply with the rules.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:29 What is discovery?
01:24 What is a relevance objection?
02:15 What can a relevance objection apply to?
03:16 What is an overbroad objection?
04:38 What is a privilege objection?
06:58 What happens when documents that don't exist are requested?
07:38 When can these objections be made?

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