As recently as 10 years ago, a junior litigator assisting in a document production might have spent endless time in a conference room, amidst boxes and boxes of papers and files. Today, the work of preparing documents for production is more likely to involve plugging search terms into a computer database. Regardless of the method, document production continues to be an essential part of civil litigation, and it often falls to the most junior lawyers to make it happen. Here are some guiding principles to aid the process.
One Aspect of Discovery
Document production is one element of discovery, the process by which the parties to a litigation exchange relevant information that can be used as evidence and for the purpose of evaluating the merits of one’s case. Through discovery, parties narrow the issues in the litigation and come to anticipate what evidence will be introduced at trial.
