Legal Discovery Process

Discussions focus on the discovery phase in US civil lawsuits, where internal documents, emails, and communications from companies and executives are exchanged and potentially become public record during litigation.

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Keywords

PACER e.g US PeopleVs NYY GP PG LIDAR NYT OP discovery documents public lawyers evidence court emails legal litigation record

Sample Comments

pkilgore Nov 13, 2025 View on HN

If you do anything in America that results in a stored record it's possible it will be released in discovery and a lawyer will read it. This happens all the time, and has happened for hundreds years.It's not like the NYT will be published this shit in the news. Their lawyers and experts will have access to make a legal case, under a protective order. I'm not going to lose my law license because I'm doing doc review and you asked it something naughty and I think it's f

SamoyedFurFluff Sep 30, 2022 View on HN

In the US, part of litigation is something called discovery. This is when involved parties ask for and provide documents to establish facts of the case (requests can also be disputed, and deleting documents is a Problem). The communication of executives with Musk would be relevant to a civil case between Musk and a company.Litigation isn’t something that should generally be taken lightly because things like discovery will tend to bring dirty laundry into public record unless documents are giv

Keverw Jan 19, 2020 View on HN

Probably if there was a lawsuit, these documents would be in the public record then as part of the discovery process.

rcme Apr 28, 2023 View on HN

I think the GP is referring to documents obtained as part of the discovery process. Things like internal company emails, private texts, etc.

ronsor Sep 24, 2023 View on HN

Aren't legal proceedings generally public information?

throw3e98 Dec 18, 2025 View on HN

I take it you are unfamiliar with the legal process of "discovery" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_(law)

vzaliva Jul 8, 2021 View on HN

IANAL, but wouldn't it be possible to request all documents pretaining to this case under FOIA, to put this question to rest?

otterley Aug 12, 2024 View on HN

That’s not the way legal process works. CrowdStrike might be permitted to conduct discovery, but that won’t entitle them to share what they might find with the public, embarrassing or otherwise. Business records and other sensitive information relating to parties in civil matters are frequently sealed.

smg Dec 9, 2021 View on HN

Does this mean that all the documents (emails from tech executives) that are part of the evidence for a court case will be publicly available?

KiranRao0 Dec 29, 2021 View on HN

Is there some "legal process" (subpoena, etc) that could reveal this?