Foreword, Chief Justice Earl Warren
Acknowledgments
Contents
Chapter 1. Perfecting the Adminstration of Justice
Assumptions and aims of the adversary system
Pathologies of the adversary system
Reforms of the adversary system
Aims of discovery
A new approach to learning legal truth
Chapter 2. Development of Modern Civil Litigation
The modern reform movement
The new civil procedure
Chapter 3. Modern Pretrial Discovery Rules
Sources of modern discovery
Discovery in the federal rules
Evaluations of discovery
Chapter 4. Aims and Design of the Survey of Discovery
How the survey originated
National mail questionnaire
Interview
Ancillary work
General significance of the discovery data
Chapter 5. Discovery in Practice
Determinants of discovery
Purposes of discovery
Purposes associated with discovery devices
Variations in use by type of case
Intensity of discovery work: time
Intensity of discovery work: devices
Conclusion
Information obtained by the litigants
Discovery use patterns
Benefits to the litigant
Effects on agreement and settlement
Length of case and length of trial
Quality of trial
Confidence in the judicial process
The accomplishments of discovery
Complaints about the adversary's discovery
Work product
Experts
Proposed changes in the rules
"Pushing" by type of case
Determinants of "pushing"
Complaints about the adversary's resistance
"Tripping" by type of cases
Going to court
Complaints about interrogatories
Deterrence of trouble through sanctions
Deterrence of trouble through standardized procedures
Conclusion
Total costs of discovery
General patterns of cost
Type of case
Discovery costs in the expensive cases
Role of discovery in litigation costs
Costs and gains
Harassment
The oppression of small plaintiffs by large defendants
Conclusion
Chapter 9. The Heavy-Discovery Case
Characteristics of the heavy-discovery case
Proportions of litigation time in discovery
Trouble
Costs
Conclusion
Chapter 10. Contributions of Social Research to Rule-Making
Confirming and specifying suspected trouble spots
Identifying specific defects
Sanctions
Requests for admissions
Deflating exaggerated issues
Eliminating unnecessary procedures
Identifying unrealistic rules
Opinions of the Bar
General considerations in designing social research for rule-making
Conclusion
Chapter 11. Discovery and Its Place in the Adversary System
Trouble and the limits of rules
Management of troublesome cases
Discovery in the average case
Improving the administration of justice
Appendices
A. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: The Discovery Rules
B. Sampling
C. Questionnaires
Indices
Index of Names
Index of Cases
Index of Subjects