What is meta-discovery?
Discovery on discovery, or meta-discovery, is discovery directed at the manner and methods that opposing counsel used to locate, preserve, search, review, and produce relevant information.
Examples of such requests include:
- A copy of the party’s document preservation policy
- A copy of the party’s litigation hold
- A copy of the party’s document review protocols
- A description of the process by which data or documents were collected
When is meta-discovery problematic?
While meta-discovery may be relevant in cases where there is a good faith reason to believe that the opposing party has destroyed or covered up information, reflexive requests for meta-discovery drive up discovery costs, cause unnecessary privilege disputes, and start an unnecessary fishing expedition into the sufficiency of a party’s document collection and review methodology.
