00:04
so discovery is something that is used
00:06
frequently
00:07
in family law matters and you have both
00:09
written discovery
00:10
and oral discovery oral discovery
00:14
is like depositions okay most people
00:16
have seen
00:17
uh seen that on a show on tv it’s a
00:20
little different than typically than
00:22
what they show on tv
00:23
but that would be like me and my client
00:25
if we were taking
00:26
uh the deposition of her former spouse
00:29
okay
00:30
or her current spouse in a divorce
00:32
action it’s going to be him and his
00:34
lawyer there i’m going to have a court
00:36
reporter i’m going to have a
00:37
videographer there
00:38
and i’ve pretty much got carte blanche
00:40
to ask them
00:41
what i want to do as long as it is not
00:43
just completely outlandish
00:45
okay written discovery which is used
00:49
far more than depositions you try to
00:51
avoid depositions
00:53
if you can because of the cost
00:55
associated with it
00:56
you’ve got prep time for the lawyer
00:58
you’ve got the lawyer time in there
00:59
you’ve got to
01:00
you know prep the client then you’ve got
01:02
the videographer fees and you’ve got the
01:04
court reporter fees so it gets expensive
01:06
in a hurry
01:06
and if you have to take a bunch of them
01:09
it really gets expensive
01:11
written discovery is less expensive
01:12
although it’s also very time intensive
01:14
you have things that are called
01:17
disclosures
01:18
okay disclosures are now required
01:21
within 30 days of the filing of an
01:23
answer that’s just been changed
01:26
by the texas supreme court that’s where
01:28
you’re going to have to
01:29
list witnesses uh you know both fact
01:33
witnesses
01:34
and expert witnesses
01:37
and you’re going to have to do it
01:38
quickly you’re also going to have to
01:40
provide certain documentation much
01:41
earlier than you typically would
01:43
so after disclosures you’ve got
01:45
interrogatories okay which are just
01:47
that’s fancy legal terminology
01:49
for just written questions depending on
01:52
the level of the case if you’re a level
01:54
one two or three is going to be
01:56
determinative
01:57
of how many interrogatories you can per
02:00
pound to the other side
02:02
you also have a request for production
02:04
of documents which is exactly what it
02:06
sounds like
02:07
you’re asking for documentation common
02:09
things
02:10
you know you want bank statements you
02:11
want credit card statements you want the
02:13
different things
02:14
from financial institutions if you have
02:17
uh different corporations you want the
02:20
corporate documents you know not just
02:22
the formation documents
02:23
but the minutes of meetings and things
02:25
like that that have transpired over the
02:27
years to understand what’s really been
02:28
going on
02:29
not to mention you want all the internal
02:31
financial documentation
02:33
of of those corporations that’s just
02:35
kind of a starting point of where you
02:37
would want to go
02:38
you also have admissions which are
02:40
statements that say
02:41
admit or deny that such and such
02:44
those are used less often by some
02:46
lawyers i tend to use them pretty
02:48
frequently i think they’re a great way
02:51
to kind of box someone in
02:53
on what their positions are another area
02:55
that is incredibly common is the usage
02:57
of subpoenas
02:58
so you might want to in a child custody
03:01
case let’s say there’s an allegation
03:03
that one party
03:05
has mental health issues
03:08
you might want to subpoena the records
03:11
from
03:11
a psychiatrist or psychologist’s office
03:14
now all of that stuff starts getting
03:16
very sticky when you get
03:18
into medical records because then you’re
03:19
dealing with hipaa laws
03:21
that’s a whole other conversation for
03:23
another time
03:24
but those are the basic things that
03:26
you’re going to use in discovery