Discovery and Pre-Trial Preparation
The discovery toolbox
Discovery includes interrogatories, requests for production of documents, requests for admission, depositions, subpoenas duces tecum to non-parties, independent medical examinations, and expert disclosures. Federal practice and most states require expert reports or disclosures containing opinions, bases, qualifications, and compensation. The LNC typically drafts medical interrogatories, organizes produced records, prepares chronologies for deposition, and helps counsel assemble exhibit and witness lists.
The LNC's supporting role
For depositions, prepare a topic outline with page cites, key records, and internal inconsistencies; attend as a consultant where permitted and take notes without coaching the witness. For trial, prepare demonstratives, timelines, and a glossary of medical terms, and anticipate cross-examination themes. Track deadlines, privilege logs, protective orders, and motions to compel. Watch for spoliation issues and for late or incomplete expert disclosures, which can result in exclusion of the opinion.
Traps: treating interrogatory answers as trial evidence; assuming expert work product remains protected after designation; missing disclosure deadlines; producing records without a privilege review; assuming a subpoena alone authorizes release of protected health information in every state.
Rule of thumb: for each discovery request, answer three questions - what exactly is requested, who holds it, and what privilege or protection applies - and record the answer in a tracking log.
Preparing the witness
Build a preparation binder: chronology, key records, prior testimony, the expert's own report, and anticipated attacks on qualifications, methodology, and bias. Rehearse the distinction between what the record shows and what the expert inferred.