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Discovery

The pre-trial process in which each side must hand over relevant evidence to the other.

Informational only - this is not legal advice. These definitions explain general legal vocabulary in plain English. They are not advice about your situation, reading them creates no attorney-client relationship, and the law differs from state to state and changes over time. For advice you can rely on, speak to a lawyer licensed in your state.

What it means

Discovery is the stage of a lawsuit where each side is required to give the other access to relevant information: documents, written answers to questions, admissions, and sworn testimony. It is compulsory, not voluntary, and it is enforced by the court.

The design goal is to remove surprise. A civil trial in the United States is not intended to turn on evidence the other side has never seen, so the parties exchange it beforehand and the case is argued on a shared record.

Discovery is not unlimited. Requests must be proportionate to what the case is actually about, and material protected by a privilege - most commonly communications between a lawyer and their client - can be withheld, though the fact that something is being withheld generally has to be disclosed. Disputes over where those lines fall are among the most common reasons cases stall.

Where this comes from

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(1) sets the scope in federal civil cases: matter that is relevant to a claim or defence and proportional to the needs of the case. State courts apply their own rules of civil procedure.

When people hire a lawyer for this

Discovery obligations attach as soon as litigation is reasonably anticipated, which is usually earlier than people assume, and destroying or failing to preserve relevant records can carry consequences of its own. If a lawsuit is likely, the preservation question is worth asking before anything is deleted.

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Part of the LawyerLand plain-English legal glossary. Definitions are written from primary sources - statutes and court rules - and each entry states the authority it rests on, or says plainly when the doctrine is state law with no national rule.

If you cannot afford a lawyer, civil legal aid programmes provide free help with many of these problems: civil legal aid programmes by state.