Federal Civil Discovery: Mastering the Tools Rules and Pitfalls

55 questions on federal civil discovery, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Are contention interrogatories proper?
• Can a non-party shift the cost of complying with a subpoena?
• Can a witness change deposition testimony on an errata sheet?
• Can I subpoena someone's cloud account for their files?
• Does arbitration have the same discovery as federal court?
• How do courts find intent to deprive in a spoliation case?
• How do you object to discovery on burden grounds properly?
• How is the attorney-client privilege lost?
• How many interrogatories can I serve, and what counts toward the limit?
• How should a public records request be made?
• How should documents be redacted for production?
• How should requests for admission be drafted?
• In what format must ESI be produced?
• Should litigators use public records requests alongside formal discovery?
• What are the common preservation failures?
• What are the compartments of Rule 37 sanctions?
• What are the default limits on depositions?
• What are the fee consequences of a motion to compel?
• What are the geographic limits on a Rule 45 subpoena?
• What are the recurring mistakes in responding to document requests?
• What are the recurring production mistakes?
• What are the risks of an inadequate privilege log?
• What are the six proportionality factors?
• What did the December 2025 amendments change about privilege logs?
• What discovery objections are commonly abused?
• What does an attorney certify by signing a discovery response?
• What does counsel have to do to run a defensible litigation hold?
• What does "possession, custody, or control" mean in a document request?
• What does the attorney-client privilege protect?
• What happens if I miss the deadline to respond to requests for admission?
• What is a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition and why is it dangerous?
• What is a Rule 502(d) order and why is it the strongest clawback protection?
• What is a speaking objection and why is it sanctionable?
• What is categorical privilege logging?
• What is technology-assisted review and is it accepted?
• What is the cost-of-proof penalty for wrongly denying a request for admission?
• What is the difference between Rule 37(e)(1) and 37(e)(2) sanctions?
• What is the EDRM and what are its stages?
• What is the scope of discovery under Rule 26(b)(1)?
• What is the single most useful habit in discovery practice?
• What is the work product doctrine and how does it differ from privilege?
• What must a privilege log contain?
• What must be disclosed under Rule 26(a)(1) without being asked?
• What sanctions exist outside Rule 37?
• What should I do before filing a motion to compel?
• What three response requirements changed Rule 34 practice in 2015?
• When can counsel instruct a deponent not to answer?
• When does the duty to preserve evidence attach?
• When must a court quash a subpoena?
• Which objections should be made at a deposition?
• Who bears the burden of proving that discovery is disproportionate?
• Who must sign interrogatory answers, and why does it matter?
• Whose communications with corporate counsel are privileged?
• Why are boilerplate discovery objections a problem?
• Why does discovery matter more than trial in most cases?