Our Approach to Discovery

At Killeen and Stern, we know that discovery doesn’t have to be expensive and drawn out. Discovery disputes that end up in court usually don’t fare well- which is why we try to avoid them. Instead, we set up an understanding with your opposing counsel from the very beginning. Conducting discovery by agreement saves both time and money.

The next step in the discovery process is document production. As soon as we receive document requests from opposing counsel, one of our experienced attorneys will contact you. After deciding what should be objected to, we then work with you to locate the responsive documents. Our legal assistants will ensure that the entire procedure goes smoothly for you; from preparing and logging all files searched to making sure that files are received by the appropriate person. And before we turn over a single document, one of our attorneys will review them- removing anything that might be considered privileged.

Once both sides have decided which documents are vital to the case, we take a step that many other legal firms forget about completely… document organization. Assembling all documents chronologically, and notating the ones that will be important for witness preparation and depositions, helps ensure that we don’t miss anything important (or waste your time on a dead end).

When we’re ready to begin taking depositions, you might be pleasantly surprised at Killeen & Stern’s approach. We firmly believe that extensive questioning of a witness only allows them to be more prepared, thereby removing the crucial element of surprise. Therefore, we take very few depositions. The depositions that we do take are always videotaped… a tool that helps us during jury simulation and witness preparation exercises.  

These exercises are part of what sets Killeen & Stern so far apart from other attorney firms in this region. We work extensively with all key witnesses, ensuring that they are completely comfortable. And whereas some firms prefer that their witnesses take an “I don’t remember” approach to pertinent questions, we realize that this only leads to them being ill prepared for trial. Instead, we encourage our witnesses to explore every possible avenue of questioning; ensuring that their answers come quickly and naturally. Whether we are deposing our own witness or the opposition’s, we believe in gathering the information that we need quickly and accurately. This gives us the opportunity to decide which witnesses to bring to trial, without wasting time and effort in court.