382Mutual discovery of documents

382 Mutual discovery of documents

[Rule 382 Substituted by S.R. 2012, No. 91, Applied:17 Oct 2012]

(1)  For the purposes of this Division, but subject to any agreement between the parties or an order of the Court or a judge, the discovery obligation is a continuing obligation and the discoverable documents are documents –

(a) that are directly relevant to the issues raised by the pleadings; and

(b) of which, after a reasonable search, a party is aware; and

(c) that are, or have been, in that party's possession, custody or power.

(2)  For subrule (1)(a) , the documents must meet at least one of the following criteria:

(a) the documents are those on which the party intends to rely;

(b) the documents adversely affect the party's own case;

(c) the documents support another party's case;

(d) the documents adversely affect another party's case.

(3)  For subrule (1)(b) , in making a reasonable search, a party may take into account the following:

(a) the nature and complexity of the proceedings;

(b) the number of documents involved;

(c) the ease and cost of retrieving the document;

(d) the significance of any documents likely to be found;

(e) any other relevant matter.