AFFIDAVIT OF DOCUMENTS

FISHMAN BELEY OFFICE MEMORANDUM TO CLIENTS

 

As a party in a legal proceeding, you are required to make full and complete disclosure as to the existence of all documents relevant to the proceedings that are, or have been, in your possession, control or power. 

A “document” includes any writing, printed document, sound recording, video tape, film, photograph, chart, graph, etc., and includes information recorded or stored by means of any device, such as electronic records or media, for example. 

Even if a document is claimed to be “privileged”, that is, something which need not be provided to a court or to the other side, its existence must be disclosed. “Privileged” documents can be those generated in contemplation of the litigation, such as correspondence between a lawyer and his client, or which may have resulted from a “without prejudice” encounter such as mediation or another protected source such as reconciliation counseling. 

If you have any question about whether a document may or may not be privileged please ensure that you discuss it with me.

 The listing of documents will be done in an affidavit which you will take under oath. As a party to litigation, you will be under the obligation to update your affidavit in the event documents come into your possession or control after signing the original affidavit. Additionally, if you discover that your affidavit was inaccurate or incomplete you are under an obligation to immediately correct that inaccuracy. 

The failure to disclose or produce a document can have serious consequences to your case, and is a very serious matter. 

I would appreciate it if you would make the initial attempt to organize and list the documents that are relevant to your case. Please provide me with your lists, together with the actual, original, documents at your earliest convenience. The other party is entitled to look at and inspect the original documents themselves, as well as to have copies at a reasonable cost. 

Please ensure that you do not mark any original document in any way. 

If it is necessary to draw attention to any particular aspect of any particular document, then I would suggest that you use removable stickers such as “post-it” notes.