Minimizing Discovery Cost through Effective Trial Strategy

Depending on how courts implement recent changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the cost of litigation may soon decrease. Litigants can take advantage of the amended rules by engaging counsel who are focused on devising a cost-effective legal strategy that involves limiting the scope of discovery to obtain the desired outcome. Narrowing the scope of both discovery and trial is a significant issue, given the potentially enormous expense incurred in improperly managed litigation.

Poorly managed discovery can also be strategically harmful. Parties uncertain of trial strategies often serve their opponents with long lists of broad, vague and burdensome requests, but requesting unnecessary documents allows adversaries to bury important documents among thousands of irrelevant ones and can lead to enormous document review expense.

Parties should pay special attention to how they list and describe their claims and defenses, so that they do not unintentionally expand the scope of discovery their adversaries seek. A party may be better off dropping a counterclaim that has a low probability of success, rather than opening itself to burdensome discovery on a side issue that would otherwise be irrelevant.

Counsel can also generate considerable cost-savings for their clients by limiting the issues the court needs to consider. This limits the scope of discovery and trial, and it helps focus the judge on the issues the party wants to litigate – meaning those claims and defenses on which the party is most likely to prevail.