Arizona Personal Injury Discovery Process

Arizona Personal Injury litigation can be time-consuming and expensive. The Arizona Personal Injury litigation process allows the defendant to obtain information from you, other parties in the lawsuit, and third persons. This is called “Discovery.” This outline summarizes some of the typical discovery devices that may directly impact you if your case goes into litigation. Your Arizona personal injury case may involve any one of these procedures depending on the type of your case and its complexity.

Introduction

During the discovery process, you will be required to provide relevant information or information that may lead to admissible evidence. For example, a Plaintiff claiming a certain physical injury must allow the defendant access to many of his or her medical records, including medical records that pre-date the accident. We will consult with you and advise you about this process.

The discovery process around an Arizona personal injury claim can seem somewhat invasive to your privacy. You may be required to provide information to another party that you would rather not provide, such as preexisting medical problems. There are few exceptions; sometimes a Court may find that a request for information unnecessarily invades your privacy or is unduly burdensome. However, those findings are rare. We will advise you as to which items we believe are reasonable or unreasonable during the discovery part of the process.

Disclosure Statements

In Arizona, each party must prepare and produce a “disclosure statement.” This includes a description of the facts surrounding your claims, as well as the names, addresses and phone numbers of witnesses, and copies of any documents or things which you possess and which are relevant to the Arizona Personal Injury Litigation. It is important to give us all information and documents that helps prove your personal injury case. If you don’t, the Court may preclude its use at trial if you don’t disclose it – even if it is very relevant!

The parties usually exchange initial disclosure statements approximately a month after the Defendant files his or her answer. Accordingly, once we begin working on your case, you should begin preparing for us a list of witnesses, including their names, addresses and telephone numbers, and include the information they have about your claims.

We can sometimes supplement disclosure statements with new information that we learn as your case progresses. If you learn about new information during your case, you should always let us know, so that we can timely disclose it.

Depositions

A deposition is an examination of a party or a potential witness under oath. Depositions are both an effective and expensive means of gathering information about your case. They can cost between $500 and $1,500.00.

After the deposition, a court reporter transcribes the testimony which is then available for future use. In a deposition, each party’s attorney has an opportunity to examine the witness. The attorneys have a great deal of leeway on what types of questions to ask the witness, as long as it can lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.

Depositions usually last approximately four hours. Occasionally, they can go longer. If you are the person being deposed, you should block at least half a day out of your schedule to ensure there’s enough time.

Prior to your deposition, you should plan on meeting with us well in advance to prepare. A Solomon & Relihan, Arizona Personal Injury Lawyer, may meet with you several times.

Interrogatories

Interrogatories are a series of written questions directed to the parties. Interrogatories are typically sent out before the depositions. The party responding to an interrogatory is supposed to look at his or her records to provide written responses. The responding party has at least forty days to respond to the interrogatories and can consult with his or her Arizona Personal Injury Attorney before responding.

Interrogatories are an important part of the discovery process. They can be used to learn about the other side’s case as well as yours.

Request for Production

If a party in the Arizona personal injury lawsuit possesses documents, the opposing party can obtain copies by sending out a “request for production of documents.” This is a formal written request to the party to produce documents or a category of documents. The party must then produce the documents. Occasionally a party may claim these documents are protected by a privilege or that to produce them would be unduly burdensome. When that happens, the parties may have to litigate the propriety of obtaining the documents.

If you believe the other party possesses important documents or other tangible evidence, let us know so we can send out a request for production.

Requests for Admissions

In order to narrow the issues, the parties can formally request that the other party admit the truth of a certain fact to eliminate the need to prove that fact at trial. For example, the Plaintiff may wish to establish that his or her medical records are authentic, and thus request the defendant to admit their authenticity. If the defendant fails to admit that fact, and if the Plaintiff ultimately proves the records are authentic at trial, the Court may impose a sanction against the defendant for the failure to admit.

Subpoena Duces Tecum

Sometimes the parties need to obtain documents or other tangible evidence in the possession of someone outside the Arizona Personal Injury lawsuit. If another non-party possesses the information, the parties can serve a “subpoena duces tecum” which compels the non-party or his or her representative to appear and produce records. Subpoenas entail some costs, such as reimbursing the non-parties for their costs in reproducing the documents.

Independent Medical Exams

Independent medical exams (“IMEs”) are used when the Plaintiff claims he or she has suffered certain injuries through the fault of the Defendant, and the defendant wants to test the validity of these claims. “Independent” is actually a misnomer. There’s nothing independent about these exams. The defendant typically hires its own doctor to examine the Plaintiff. The doctor is typically a professional witness which the Defendant’s insurance carrier pays to render a medical opinion. These exams are often requested in personal injury cases.

Expert Witnesses

Many cases involve one or more expert witnesses. An expert witness is someone who possesses special skill, knowledge, training or experience which an ordinary person would not possess. Experts typically have no first-hand knowledge regarding the events of the case but can offer their expertise to help the judge and jury understand the case. In some instances, an ordinary witness may also qualify as an expert because of that person’s knowledge. Your treating physician may have first-hand knowledge of your injuries and may also possess expertise to testify about those injuries.

Hiring an expert witness can be expensive and must be done with care. Some cases, however, require that we hire an expert witness to meet our burden of proof in your Arizona Personal Injury case.