Practice Tip: Be Proactive in Document Production

As a party producing documents, you can't change the way the other side will behave, but you can still set up your document production to make it much more likely that things will go well. Anticipate your document production needs when a case is filed, not when you first receive written discovery requests. If the litigation is on a brand-new subject for which no documents have previously been gathered, get started on the process. If it is serial or otherwise familiar litigation, consider what unique discovery might be required by this case, and look into it.

Take the initiative by offering the document production on your terms. Consider making an offer of documents up front, before the other side even serves its requests. The new Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(1)(B) requires the production of documents, or a description of documents, that a party may use to support its claims and defenses. (Some local rules expand this to require production of documents that either side might use to support its claims and defenses.) This is a good opportunity to make an initial proffer of documents, but you may also choose to do so in a letter to the opposing counsel. You should at the same time flag any issues that you see as potentially troublesome. This may be a set of documents that will take you some time to produce, or a group of electronic documents that would cost more to recover than the likely value of the entire case. (In the latter circumstance you may want to inform the other side that it would be unreasonably burdensome to produce those documents, but that you will do so if they will bear the cost.)