inspection of documents

inspection of documents n. the right to examine and copy the opposing party's papers in a lawsuit which are relevant to the case. A demand (legal request) may be made, but the categories of documents must be stated so that the other party can know what he/she must produce. If the opposition either refuses to produce some documents or appears to hold back, the party wanting to see the documents can bring a "motion to produce" requesting a court order to produce and a penalty (sanctions) to be paid for failure to honor the demand. A party may also use a subpena duces tecum to obtain specific documents if they are known to exist. All of these procedures are part of the discovery process, intended to give both sides extensive pre-trial information. Such exchanges of documents can lead to settlement, minimize surprises at trial, and keep one side from hiding material and, thus, preventing the other from being able to introduce relevant material at trial. However, it is well known that many law firms obfuscate, delay, pretend to misunderstand requests, and fail to be forthcoming. (See: discovery, trial, evidence, subpena duces tecum)