“The parties shall facilitate discovery under these rules and shall make reasonable attempts to resolve differences over discovery. They have to write “You owe me X for discovery but you only gave me Y. They have to reach out to resolve their differences. Indeed, unless and until trial judges clamp down on discovery abuses-be it engaging in stonewalling, foot dragging, obfuscation, or any other shenanigans-little incentive exists for the already recalcitrant party to comply.” Locasto v. Also, it often leads to increased tensions and a decay of civility between lawyers. “For a party trying to obtain legitimate discovery, dealing with disruptive or manipulative conduct can be demoralizing and distracting, and, certainly, has the potential to increase expenses. Therefore, it is almost always worth enforcing discovery requests because they are hiding evidence of assets for a reason…they do not want to share those marital assets and income. It is the people that have a variety of valuable assets that obfuscate, evade and refuse compliance with discovery requests. “Discovery is intended as, and should be, a cooperative undertaking by counsel and the parties, conducted largely without court intervention, for the purpose of ascertaining the merits of the case and thus promoting either a fair settlement or a fair trial.” Williams v. These spouses turn over what little documentary evidence they have of these items without much fuss. The average person has a W-2 job, a retirement account, a house and a car. While this article focuses on the difficulties of getting complete discovery from a divorcing spouse, I have found in my years of practice that most people have little to hide. How do you compel full and complete discovery in an Illinois divorce case? Your spouse may destroy evidence, “forget” evidence, or simply refuse to communicate. During a divorce, you will likely be your spouse’s least favorite person. Failure to comply in whole or in part is common in an Illinois divorce case. These various requests go out and almost all of them have to be answered or objected to within 28 days. “ party may obtain by discovery full disclosure regarding any matter relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action” Ill. These requests can ask for virtually anything. These tools include notices to produce, subpoenas, interrogatories, requests to admit and financial affidavits. The Illinois Supreme Court Rules provide a variety of tools by which each party to a law suit may request information from your spouse/ex-spouse or third parties who hold information relevant to the pending divorce case.
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