DISCOVERY

The process that a party to a a lawsuit undertakes to obtain information before a trial.  The discovery process may include demands for production of documentation and information, depositions of parties, potential witnesses, written interrogatories, written requests for admission of fact, examination of a property or scene and the petitions an motions employed to enforce discovery rights.  Quite often, much of the fighting and disagreements between the two parties in a lawsuit takes place during the discovery period.

Theoretically, the discovery process exists so all parties involved can go to trial with as much knowledge and information as possible and so secrets can not be kept between the parties.