Political Quotes

“There are two major problems with this amendment, which I strongly oppose and which is not well thought out. First, it betrays a serious misunderstanding about how discovery works in civil litigation. The amendment says if documents subject to a discovery order are destroyed or withheld such action shall be deemed an admission of any fact with respect to which the order was issued. The problem is that discovery orders normally are not issued with respect to facts. The orders normally say that certain categories of documents should be retained or produced. For example, the order may say produce all letters sent between person A and person B; or the order may say preserve all documents regarding subject X. Thus, the punch line to this amendment does not make any sense. If a party withheld a letter sent between person A and person B, what fact would be admitted? And if a party destroyed a document regarding subject X, what facts would be admitted? In sum, the amendment is fatally flawed because it bears no relationship to how civil discovery really works.”