This article first appeared in the New York Law Journal.
Parties to pending or contemplated foreign proceedings potentially can use 28 U.S.C. §1782 to obtain broad discovery from U.S. persons for use in their foreign proceedings. Although the statute gives courts ultimate discretion regarding whether to allow such discovery—because it “authorizes, but does not require, a federal district court” to compel the discovery that a petitioner seeks, Intel v. Advanced Micro Devices, 542 U.S. 241, 255 (2004)—courts tend to exercise their discretion liberally in favor of granting §1782 discovery.
