Before a divorce is finalized or a motion in a domestic relations court is finalized, the parties often exchange documents to verify assets, incomes, etc. In lieu of refusing to exchange a document, a party may tender the document with a portion of the document’s contents redacted. A redaction is “the careful editing of a document, especially to remove confidential references” Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019) Redacting tendered discovery is being clever by half. Redacting discovery is generally not allowed in an Illinois court. This article explains why. What Is Discovery In An Illinois Divorce? Discovery is the request of and subsequent production of documents from one party in a lawsuit to another. “Information is obtainable as provided in these rules through any of the following discovery methods: depositions upon oral examination or written questions, written interrogatories to parties, discovery of documents, objects or tangible things, inspection of real estate, requests to admit and physical and mental examination of persons.” Ill. Sup. Ct. R. 201(a) Most discovery requests to another party are requests for documents via a Notice To Produce. “Any party may by written request direct any other party to produce for inspection, copying, reproduction photographing, testing or sampling specified documents, including electronically stored information as defined under 201 (b)(4), objects or tangible things…or to disclose information calculated to lead to the discovery of the whereabouts of any of these items, whenever the nature, contents, or condition of such documents, objects, tangible things, or real estate is relevant to the subject matter of the action. The request shall specify a reasonable time” Ill. Sup. Ct. R. 214(a) Illinois courts agree that more information is good. “The purposes of litigation are best served when each party knows as much about the controversy as is reasonably practicable.” Mistler v. Mancini, 111 Ill. App. 3d 228, 231 (Ill. App. Ct. 1982) Why Would Someone Redact Tendered Discovery? A redaction is not the way to refuse to turn over information. If you do not want to turn over information, you must formally object in writing. The only reasons to not produce documents is that doing so is overly burdensome or the information is privileged. Redacting and tendering documents is obviously more burdensome than just tendering the documents so an “overly burdensome” objection won’t make any sense when explaining the need to redact. Privileged information, however, does make sense for redaction. But the first […]
