New Zealand Discovery Rules

As one of the architects of the New Zealand High Court discovery rules that were introduced in 2012, we can help you meet your obligations. 

The NZ High Court discovery rules can be found here

The rules establish a framework to assist parties to reach agreement on discovery issues in a proportionate and cost effective manner, placing greater obligations on lawyers to narrow the scope of discovery and ensure the cost is proportionate.  

It will be a significant strategic advantage to be more informed about the discovery approach in preparing for the first Case Management Conference. To achieve this, it is important to invest more time developing a discovery strategy at an early stage.

The new rules introduce a new Discovery Checklist and the Listing and Exchange Protocol to assist parties conduct discovery.

Discovery Checklist

On all matters parties must address a new Discovery Checklist and then discuss the issues raised with the other parties to agree the scope and practical arrangements for conducting discovery.

The checklist provides a roadmap to assist parties to co-operate over how discovery will be conducted, to assess a proportionate and reasonable search for documents tailored to suit the requirements of each matter.

The Discovery Checklist identifies ways to reduce some of the listing and exchange costs –

“to reduce unnecessary costs of listing documents parties are encouraged to: 

a)     Use native electronic versions of documents as much as possible; and

b)     Use the extracted metadata from native electronic documents instead of manually listing documents; and

c)     Convert documents to image format only when it is decided they are to be produced for discovery; and

d)     If document images are to be numbered, only number those images if they are to be produced for discovery.”

The Discovery Checklist is available here.

Listing and Exchange Protocol

The Listing and Exchange Protocol provides a standard default format to list and exchange information. The protocol is considered by the parties when they address the Discovery Checklist.

There is flexibility to modify the protocol to suit the requirements of the matter.

The Listing and Exchange Protocol is available here.

Want to know about the Discovery Rules?

If you want to find out more about the discovery rules, or advice on how you can tackle your discovery obligations efficiently and cost-effectively – do not hesitate to contact us today.