Effects Of COVID-19 On Document Production

It is widely recognised that the COVID-19 pandemic will affect the ability of a court or arbitration tribunal to hold hearings or conduct other in person proceedings. What is less recognised, however, is that the COVID-19 pandemic - and the various public health measures taken in response to the pandemic - also affect the preparatory steps of a case. Of particular note are the difficulties COVID-19 has caused for the production of documents, in procedures that contemplate that practice. Without entering into details as to different rules and procedures related to document discovery, or attempting to be comprehensive, this Client Alert addresses a number of difficulties that COVID-19 presents for document discovery processes.