Effectively using the discovery process is key to reaching settlement or getting the edge at trial
This publication is essential for: All civil litigators.
Current to: January 1, 2015
This annually updated manual arms you with the strategies and practice tools to effectively discover your opponent's case, while revealing what is appropriate about your own. Written by experienced litigator Lyle G. Harris, QC, Discovery Practice in British Columbia guides you to:
- asking the right questions and making effective objections at the examination
- strategies for obtaining and giving effective document production
- asserting and attacking privilege claims
- effectively using discovery evidence at trial
- and much more
Subscriptions include checklists, forms, and precedents on CD-ROM, and online access with search capability and links to the full text of case law and legislation.
ONLINE ONLY annual subscriptions are available. Subscribe now.
Highlights of the 2015 update:
The year 2014 was a busy one for the courts in hearing cases relating to the extent and scope of the many forms of discovery. The 2015 update includes all the most significant decisions from the BC Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, including judicial commentary on the following topics:
- the scope of document discovery, including: the evidentiary burden on the party asserting privilege over documents; the question of relevance; resisting document production by asserting privacy rights, including production of credit card statements and bank statements for discovering spending habits, and protecting business and trade secrets; limitations on the application of implied undertaking
- the scope of the claim of privilege over documents, including: lawyer’s brief privilege; when privilege is waived by a lawyer deposing an affidavit or a lawyer ceases to act due to a conflict of interest; Crown immunity over internal communications
- the examination for discovery, including: when co-parties with a common interest may examine separate representatives; when a court may order additional or further time to examine because of a party’s counsel repeatedly objecting or evasiveness of the witness; the place for an examination when the parties cannot agree; the number of representatives that can attend; when and how an interpreter is used for a witness
- discovery by interrogatories, including: those who answer should do so under oath; the correct form of interrogatory when the party answering will be relying on historical records to reveal a state of knowledge at a particular moment in history
- discovery by physical and mental examination, including: medical examination is not available to a litigation guardian; circumstances under which more examinations by different specialists will be allowed; the significance of consenting to further examinations.
All chapters and features in the publication are current to January 1, 2015.
CLEBC Legal Editor
Morag MacLean
mmaclean@cle.bc.ca