LEGAL ASSISTANTS OF WEST VIRGINIA, INC.
COORDINATE AND MANAGE DOCUMENT PRODUCTION

by V. Jane Lambert, CLA

The rules governing discovery procedures have been revised substantially in recent years. The most significant changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure took effect on December 1, 1993; the revised West Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure became effective April 6, 1998. For example, as a result of the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, lawyers must now identify and produce documents considered relevant to a case within approximately 85 days from the beginning of a lawsuit.

It is important to have some type of document management system to facilitate locating documents with speed and accuracy. Legal assistants can be efficient in developing document control procedures and assisting attorneys in timely complying with document production deadlines. In fact, as recognized by the court in Taylor v. Chubb, 874 P.2d 806, 809 (Okla. 1994), "coordinating and managing document production" is one of fourteen specifically named tasks a legal assistant may perform.

When a request for the production of documents is received by the attorney, the legal assistant should immediately place the due date for complying with the request on the calendar. The request for production should be carefully reviewed by the legal assistant and all documents deemed relevant to each request should be copied for review by the attorney. In retrieving documents to be produced, the legal assistant should attempt to identify those documents that may be categorized as attorney work product and others that may contain privileged information. In addition, legal assistants would identify requests that appear burdensome or irrelevant. Such identity will assist the attorney in objecting to producing the documents.

The legal assistant should also make a list of the documents requested but not in the attorney’s possession so that the client can be contacted as to the whereabouts of such documents. Some documents may be located in a warehouse or other facility because the document population is so voluminous. Accordingly, the attorney may provide a response to the document request by stating where the documents are located and providing a time and date when the opposing counsel can inspect and copy the documents. Often the legal assistant is assigned to oversee this type of document production.

The legal assistant should accompany the opposing counsel to the site for review of the documents. The documents identified by opposing counsel should be marked by the legal assistant and a copy made for the requesting attorney. Other documents may be located in bankers boxes in the attorney’s conference room. The legal assistant may be assigned to merely sit in the room while opposing counsel looks through the boxes and identify what they want.

Legal assistants merely gather the documents for production. The attorney who is ultimately responsible for document production should review the documents and make a determination as to the relevance of each document in responding to the production requests. Once a final determination has been made as to those documents to be copied and turned over to opposing counsel, the legal assistant should then have Bates® numbers affixed to each page, if this has not already been accomplished, as a means of identifying the documents produced. Because the requesting party is responsible for the cost of photocopying, the legal assistant should also be certain that an invoice for copying charges is sent along with the documents being produced.

Based upon their level of training and experience, legal assistants can assist the attorney by identifying and locating relevant documents to insure that discovery deadlines are timely met. Having a legal assistant as part of the litigation team is not a luxury – it’s a necessity.

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