Chapter V - Discovery
Rules 26 to 37
Chapter V covers the rules of discovery. Modern civil litigation is based upon the idea that the parties should not be subject to surprises at trial. Discovery is the process whereby civil litigants seek to obtain information both from other parties and from non parties (or third parties). Parties have a series of tools with which they can obtain information: 1) Document requests: a party can seek documents and other real objects from parties and non parties 2) Interrogatories: a party can require other parties to answer 25 questions 3) Requests for admissions: A party can require other parties to admit or deny the truth of certain statements 4) Depositions: A party can require at most 10 individuals or representatives of organizations to make themselves available for questioning for a maximum of one day of 7 hours, without obtaining leave of court.
Federal procedure also requires parties to divulge certain information without a formal discovery request, in contrast to many state courts where most discovery can only be had by request