Unless someone has a specific discovery topic they would like me to blog about, this will be my last post in this series. My prospective posts will be on issues related to Merlin Law Group’s disability, life, health, and long-term healthcare insurance practice.
For my final post in this series, I’d like to focus on discovery efficiency. Policyholder attorneys all too often embark on a broad, all-encompassing discovery campaign in every case, and we need to rethink this strategy. There are benefits to analyzing a case early to decide what key facts are needed to prove the case, and then tailoring discovery requests to seek that relevant information.
First, a focused plan keeps overall costs down for our policyholder clients. Sure, most policyholder firms advance costs for their clients, but most costs are ultimately reimbursed to the law firm from the policyholder’s recovery.
Second, policyholder clients are understandably interested in an expeditious resolution. Of course, policyholder attorneys often have little say as to certain variables, such as overloaded court dockets, that influence the speed of litigation, but we can certainly strive to speed up litigation by avoiding protracted discovery campaigns over unnecessary documents and information.
In sum, a well thought out and narrowly focused discovery plan can help avoid protracted litigation and lead to positive resolution more quickly, which is good for your client and your business.
To read previous posts in my series on dynamite discovery decisions, click here.
