Ethical Issues Related to Federal Court Discovery

Many lawyers take a no-holds-barred view to discovery disputes. They are time-wasters, a hassle, and otherwise simply a pain. Opposing counsel always wants to destroy one’s case, argue for documents and depositions that you know are irrelevant (or worse, likely to lead to a harder case for you and your client). The very adversarial nature of discovery lends itself to the potential for bad or unethical behavior. The Federal Rules,  California Rules of Professional Conduct and guidelines related to attorney behavior all encourage cooperation to lower burdens on the courts and on the parties.

Michael D. Harris, the author of this post, will lead a discussion of these ethical issues at our weekly SoCal IP Institute Meeting on October 30, 2023 which will qualify for 1 hour of ethics MCLE for the State Bar of California.