Discovery Problems and Their Solutions, Fourth Edition

Today, lawyers and clients devote a great deal of time, effort, and expense to discovery. More often than not, discovery, and not trial, is the central battleground of a case. Most civil lawsuits in federal court end before trial, either by pretrial settlement or on dispositive motion. In either case, the fruits of discovery can be critical to the outcome. The need for analytical and strategic guidance on problems in discovery is heightened by the fact that much of it is handled by relatively inexperienced lawyers, and in the case of document production, legal assistants. Effective discovery is crucial. This book is written to address that need. It describes the problems that civil litigators encounter most frequently in pretrial discovery and presents suggestions and strategies for solving these problems. Following a background discussion on the scope and types of discovery, discovery problems are presented as hypotheticals (many of which the authors have encountered in their experience) followed by a discussion that includes the law and helpful practice tips. In this edition, particular emphasis has been placed on discussion and interpretation of the new rules, and evolving case law, concerning discovery of electronically stored information (ESI).

About the Author :
Paul W. Grimm serves as a District Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. He was appointed to the Court on December 10, 2012. Previously, he was appointed to the Court as a Magistrate Judge in February 1997 and served as Chief Magistrate Judge from 2006 through 2012. In September 2009 the Chief Justice of the United States appointed Judge Grimm to serve as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Judge Grimm also chairs the Advisory Committee's Discovery Subcommittee. Additionally, Judge Grimm is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Baltimore School of Law and the University of Maryland School of Law, where he teaches courses on evidence and discovery, and he has written extensively on both topics. Charles S. Fax serves as counsel to the Maryland firm of Rifkin, Livingston, Levitan & Silver, following 17 years as senior litigation partner and co-chairman of the litigation department in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., offices of Shapiro Sher Guinot & Sandler, P.A. He concentrates in commercial, securities, and employment litigation, representing corporations and their officers in state and federal courts and in arbitration. Fax serves as an associate editor and columnist for Litigation News, a quarterly publication of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation, and between 2006 and 2008 served as editor of Litigation News Online, a bi-monthly, Web-based publication of the ABA Section of Litigation. Together with Grimm and Sandler, he is co-author of Maryland Discovery Problems and Solutions. Fax lectures frequently in the field of civil procedure and has been a guest lecturer at the University of Maryland School of Law and Howard University Law School. He received his undergraduate degree from the Johns Hopkins University and his law degree with honors from the George Washington University Law School. Paul Mark Sandler is a partner in the law firm of Shapiro Sher Guinot & Sandler, P.A., and is an active trial lawyer representing many notable clients in a wide variety of cases in state and federal courts. He is the author of Anatomy of a Trial: A Primer for Young Lawyers, and Raising the Bar: Practice Tips and Trial Technique for Young Maryland Lawyers. He is also the co-editor of Appellate Practice for the Maryland Lawyer: State and Federal, and co-author of Model Witness Examinations, Pattern Examinations of Witnesses for the Maryland Lawyer, Pleading Causes of Action for the Maryland Lawyer, The Winning Argument, and, with Grimm and Fax, Maryland Discovery Problems and Solutions. Sandler is a frequent lecturer on trial and appellate practice, founder and former chair of the Litigation Section of the Maryland State Bar Association, and past secretary of the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association. He received his undergraduate degree from Hobart College and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, and was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1972.