Discovery: Relevance and Proportionality

This lesson is part of a series of lessons about Discovery, under Rule 26(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This lesson will explore the two main components of discovery relevance: logical relevance and proportionality.

You can do the Discovery lessons in any order, although it might make the most sense to start with this lesson before exploring the ones about exemptions from discovery such as attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the lesson, the student will be able to:

1. State the definition of relevance for discovery purposes.
2. Apply the concept of logical relevance to a variety of fact patterns
3. List, apply, and evaluate the Rule 26 factors intended to ensure that the burden of discovery is proportional to its expected value.