Discovery can be a harrowing and intrusive process for all litigants. As federal and state rules allow for broad discovery of information relevant to any party’s claims or defenses, individuals and business are compelled to reveal an array of information that is not a matter of public knowledge and that is highly private or personal.

The civil rules do not “differentiate between information that is private or intimate and that to which no privacy interests attach…Thus, the Rules often allow extensive intrusion into the affairs of both litigants and third parties.” Seattle Times Co. v. Rhinehart, 467 U.S. 20, 30 (1984)...

Originally published in the CMBA Journal - November 2023.