Discovery Practice in British Columbia

Discovery: Your key to reaching settlement or gaining an edge at trial

This publication is essential for:  all civil litigators looking for direction regarding discovery.

Current to: February 1, 2017

The tools of discovery are powerful and are potentially invasive instruments that can strengthen your case and damage your opponent’s. Discovery Practice in British Columbia arms you with strategies to successfully discover your opponent's case while revealing what is appropriate about your own. This manual covers all discovery tools including document discovery, examination for discovery, pre-trial examination, interrogatories, and more. You will benefit from scripts used by seasoned litigators and real-life lessons from their experiences to inform your own discovery needs. 

With this resource, you will be able to:

• determine strategic approaches for obtaining and giving document production
  
• ask the right questions and make effective objections at examinations
  
• assert and attack privilege claims
  
• skillfully use discovery evidence at trial

The 2017 Update to the Discovery Practice in British Columbia includes the most significant decisions from the BC Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, including judicial commentary on the following topics:

• Document discovery: considerations regarding electronic documents and data; considerations in large document cases; documents that must be listed; who is responsible for the costs of production; consequences of non-disclosure; circumstances in which an order for an affidavit documents is warranted;
• Examination for discovery: examination of Crown representatives; the geographical location of the discovery; when further examination for discovery will be ordered; when the implied undertaking does not apply;
• Privilege: solicitor-client privilege as a substantive legal right; when there may be implied waiver of solicitor-client privilege; the scope of legal advice privilege; litigation privilege over investigator’s reports;
• Discovery by physical and mental examination: the proportionality factor in determining whether to grant a further medical examination; the requirement for a party to sign a physician’s consent form when attending a medical examination.

CLEBC Legal Editor
Bev Leader
bleader@cle.bc.ca