BC Family Law Clients need to be aware that discoveries can be the most important part of both their and the opposing party’s case. It is critical that Vancouver family law lawyers are fully prepared for discoveries and that they have well instructed their clients for the discovery process. The highly rated family lawyers at MacLean Family Law Group will seek to take advantage of any lack of preparation on behalf of your spouse to extract damaging answers to their case and conversely, excellent answers for our case. We pride ourselves on ensuring that your clients are fully prepared in advance on the “hot button” issues in your case together with what good answers and poor answers are with respect to each of these issues.
Discovery is a fundamental part of the legal process. It exposes both parties’ views on the case and allows you to assess the strengths and weaknesses of both your case and the case of the opposing party. The goal for the lawyer conducting the discovery is also to obtain answers that help their case and that weaken or destroy the opposing party’s case. In a discovery, or examination for discovery as it can also be called, the parties to a case must disclose all of the documents that could be used by any one party at trial to prove or disprove a material fact (something that is directly relevant to your case). The document in a case is defined as any record of permanent or semi-permanent character or any information recorded or stored by any means of any device. This can include films, photographs, computer files, and sound recordings.
Determining the documents to be disclosed to the opposing party is based on whether or not a document is related to a material fact.
You must show any document that you have in your possession or control that could be used by any party at trial to prove or disprove a material fact. Certain documents may be considered “privileged” which prevents the opposing party from seeing them. It is important that you never unknowingly provide privileged documentation to the opposing party as this could harm your case.
The new B.C. Supreme Court Rules have made some positive changes to the discovery process. Under the new rules, an examination for discovery is limited to five hours with more time being allotted based on the complexity of the case. The disclosure of documents is also being more closely scrutinized with the new rules requiring valid reasons to support why certain documentation is needed by the requesting party. These changes were imposed by the B.C. Supreme Court to try and reduce costs to the parties in family law cases, while also making it easier for lawyers and the courts to resolve these cases more quickly.
In a discovery the opposing counsel will try to determine the strength of the facts of your case and will seek to find any fabrications or alterations to your testimony. It is important that when giving your discovery testimony you:
- Tell the truth
- Be straightforward in your answers
- Do not try to anticipate whether your response will help or hinder your case but do ask us any questions you might have about key issues in advance.
MacLean Family Law Group provides clients with an in-depth guide on discoveries and we look forward to sharing this information with you at your initial consultation. Contact us toll free by calling 1 877 602 9900.
