A lawyer should exercise good faith and fairness when conducting discovery and should not use any form of discovery, the scheduling of discovery, or any other part of the discovery process as a means of harassing opposing counsel or the opposing party or as a means of delaying the timely, efficient and cost effective resolution of a dispute.
Specifically:
(a) As to Depositions, a lawyer who manifests professional courtesy and civility: (1) Takes depositions only where needed to learn facts or information or to preserve testimony.(2) Accommodates the schedules of opposing counsel and the deponent in scheduling depositions, where it is possible to do so without prejudicing the client's rights.(3) Ordinarily shows deference to a deposition scheduled and noticed by another party of the reasonable near future by not scheduling another deposition in the same case for an earlier date without the agreement of opposing counsel.(4) Does not delay a deposition for bad faith purposes but only if necessary to meet real scheduling problems.(5) Does not ask questions about a deponent's personal affairs or question a deponent's integrity where such questions are irrelevant to the subject matter or the deposition.(6) Avoids repetitive or argumentative questions or those asked solely for purposes of harassment.(7) Limits objections to those that are well founded and necessary for the protection of the client's interest, and remembers that most objections are preserved and need be made only when the form of a question is defective or privileged information is sought.(8) Does not direct a deponent to refuse to answer a question unless the question seeks privileged information or is calculated to harass.(9) Refrains from self-serving speeches during depositions, no matter which party the lawyer represents.(10) Does not engage in any conduct during a deposition that is likely to offend others present and that would violate prevalent standards of behavior in judicial proceedings.(b) As to document requests, a lawyer who manifests professional courtesy and civility: (1) Limits requests for production of documents to documents actually and reasonably believed to be needed for the prosecution or defense of an action and does not make demands to harass or embarrass a party or witness or to impose an inordinate burden or expense in responding.(2) Does not draft requests for production of documents and things so broadly that they encompass items clearly not relevant to the subject matter of the case or clearly not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.(3) Does not interpret the request in an artificially restrictive manner in an attempt to avoid disclosure.(4) Withholds documents and things on the grounds of privilege or confidentiality only where appropriate.(5) Does not produce documents in a way calculated to hide or obscure the existence of particular documents and, where not unreasonably burdensome to do so, produces documents in a reasonably organized and intelligible fashion.(6) Timely and without unreasonable objections produces requested documents to opposing counsel to allow sufficient time for inspection prior to depositions.(c) As to interrogatories, a lawyer who manifests professional courtesy and civility: (1) Uses interrogatories sparingly and never to harass or impose undue burden or expense on the opposing party.(2) Does not read or respond to interrogatories in an artificial manner designed to assure that answers are not truly responsive.(3) Does not object to interrogatories except when a good faith belief exists in the merit of the objections, or make objections for the purpose of withholding relevant information, and, if an interrogatory is objectionable only in part, answers the unobjectionable portion.(d) As to discovery conferences, a lawyer who manifests professional courtesy and civility:(1) Does not request a discovery conference without first attempting to confer with opposing counsel to narrow the issues of dispute.(2) Makes sparing use of discovery conferences in light of the burden of time and expense upon the parties and the court.Amended effective 10/4/2004; amended September 7, 2017, effective 1/1/2018; amended August 22, 2023, effective 1/1/2024.