A Blog About Intellectual Property Litigation and the District of Delaware


Entries for tag: Discovery on Discovery

Disco on disco, baby
Disco on disco, baby AI-Generated, displayed with permission

Discovery on discovery -- i.e., discovery asking how you're collecting documents, or when you started your litigation hold, or why all your documents smell like bubblegum -- is generally not allowed in Delaware (and most other districts I'm aware of). To get that sweet, sweet, disco on disco, you need to make a "threshold showing that significant, relevant, and non-cumulative information has been withheld or overlooked." British Telcoms. PLC v. IAC/Interactivecorp,. C.A. No. 18-366-WCB, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37271, at *21 (D. Del. Mar. 4, 2020). This is a pretty big ask in the context of a discovery dispute, so we only rarely see the issue come up.

But …

annie-spratt-AFB6S2kibuk-unsplash
Annie Spratt, Unsplash

It's not uncommon to see discovery requests and 30(b)(6) topics asking about the location of documents. In fact, up until 2015, Rule 26 specifically provided for this kind of discovery:

Parties may obtain discovery regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any party's claim or defense--including the existence, description, nature, custody, condition, and location of any documents or other tangible things . . . .

FRCP 26 (2014).

In 2015, in a (highly commendable) effort to shorten Rule 26, that example was dropped. Now it just reads:

Parties may obtain discovery regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any party's claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case . . …