This morning I am working on a set of slip and fall discovery. The Defendant in this case is a big box store. I have litigated cases against them in the past. People always ask me “does that store have cameras?” The answer is no. I think a bunch of MBA’s told them its more cost effective to eat the stolen products versus preserve evidence for use in lawsuits. In any case, here is some information on Slip and Fall Discovery and what types of information a lawyer wants to get on a case like this.
INTERROGATORIES
Interrogatories are a bunch of questions we send to the other side for answering. Normally, they put in a boilerplate objections and then answer some portion of the question. If the Defense doesn’t answer the question fully the Plaintiff can seek to compel better answers via the Court. But generally speaking the Judge prefers if the parties sort this out on their own accord. We ask questions like: Please describe what happened on the day of the incident; Please tell us the insurance policies that apply to this loss; Please tell us if you think the Plaintiff did anything wrong. All of those are of course in fancy legal language and related to that particular case.
REQUESTS TO PRODUCE
A Request to Produce is asking the other side to physically provide information like photographs or videos of the incident. It would also include things like a copy of the insurance policy, store policies and procedures, cleaning and maintenance logs, and incident reports. Sometimes the other side will argue this information is confidential. A judge determines if that is accurate or not.
ADMISSIONS
Admissions are my favorite part of Discovery. In my opinion they are “box you in” questions. We ask the Defendant to Admit or Deny. For example: “Admit that the Plaintiff fell at your store on X date on or about X time” or “Admit the Plaintiff incurred the following attached medical expenses as a result of the fall.” The Defendant will inevitably place some objections in the response they provide. Or pretend like they don’t understand simple definitions of words. It is an unnecessary part of litigating slip and fall cases in my humble opinion.
This article was written by award winning personal injury lawyer Brian Dettman. Brian has tried numerous slip and fall cases to jury verdict and recovered millions for persons involved in slip and fall cases. Follow up questions can be sent to bdettman@dettmanlawgroup.com
