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Civil Procedure Fall Launch: Discovery, Summary Judgment, and Pretrial Resolution: Building the Factual Record

Civil Procedure Fall Launch: Discovery, Summary Judgment, and Pretrial Resolution: Building the Factual Record

Author: The Law School of America August 29, 2026 Duration: 1:04:36
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Saturday covers the litigation phase between initial pleadings and trial, focusing on discovery and summary judgment.

Discovery allows parties to exchange nonprivileged information relevant to a claim or defense, bounded by proportionality factors such as case value, party resources, and burden versus benefit. Information need not be admissible at trial to be discoverable.

Parties must provide initial disclosures covering core witnesses, documents, ESI, damages calculations, and insurance without waiting for formal requests.

Key discovery tools include depositions, written interrogatories to parties, document and ESI requests, requests for admission to narrow facts, court-ordered physical/mental exams, and nonparty subpoenas.

Attorney-client privilege protects confidential legal advice communications, but not underlying facts or non-legal guidance. The work-product doctrine protects qualifying litigation prep materials, distinguishing ordinary work product from highly protected opinion work product.

Testifying experts are subject to formal disclosure and deposition, whereas non-testifying consulting experts receive stronger protection.

Parties must preserve electronically stored information (ESI) once litigation is reasonably anticipated. Courts examine prejudice and intent when determining appropriate sanctions for lost ESI.

Courts can issue protective orders against discovery abuse or grant motions to compel compliance, applying specific discovery rules rather than Rule 11 for misconduct.

Summary judgment tests the evidentiary record rather than mere allegations. It is granted when no genuine dispute of material fact exists and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

A fact is material if it affects the legal outcome, and a dispute is genuine if a reasonable factfinder could rule for the nonmoving party. Judges do not weigh credibility at summary judgment.

Once the moving party shows an absence of evidence or negates an essential element, the nonmoving party must produce specific evidenceā€”not mere allegationsā€”showing a triable issue.

Complaint ā†’ Answer ā†’ Discovery ā†’ Summary Judgment ā†’ Trial

In short, discovery builds the factual record, and summary judgment determines whether a genuine dispute requires trial or if the case can be decided as a matter of law.

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Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 50

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