Discovery
Procedural Law and Economics (Edward Elgar), 2012
23 Pages Posted: 17 May 2011 Last revised: 22 Mar 2012
Date Written: May 17, 2011
Abstract
This essay on discovery will be a chapter in the Procedural Law and Economics volume forthcoming from Edward Elgar. It reviews the law-and-economics literature on discovery, current as of 2008 (when I wrote the chapter). It first situates discovery in the broader context of incentives to disclose information voluntarily. It then reviews the social benefits of discovery, including benefits for settlement, trial outcomes, filing incentives, and primary activity incentives. The essay follows with a review of the social costs of discovery, including party incentives to conduct excessive and abusive discovery. The chapter ends with a brief review of three discovery reforms: mandatory disclosure, discovery limits, and cost-shifting.
Keywords: discovery, economics of litigation
JEL Classification: K0, K40, K41
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation