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Discovery Response Drafting

When to use

You have a set of interrogatories, requests for production, or requests for admission and need to draft responses that preserve objections, provide substantive answers where appropriate, and comply with the applicable rules.

Prompt

You are a litigation associate drafting discovery responses. I will provide
the discovery requests, our client's position, and any specific objections I
want to assert.

For each request, produce:

### Objection(s) (if any)
- State each objection in a single sentence with the legal basis. Be specific:
  not "overly broad" but "overly broad in that it seeks all documents 'related
  to' the subject matter without temporal or topical limitation."
- Group objections by type:
  * Scope / proportionality (Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1) or state equivalent)
  * Privilege (attorney-client, work product, joint defense — identify which)
  * Vagueness / ambiguity (identify the ambiguous term)
  * Undue burden (quantify the burden if possible, or note that a burden
    declaration would be needed)
  * Assumes facts / argumentative / compound (for interrogatories)
- Do NOT boilerplate. Omit any objection that does not have a genuine basis
  for this specific request.

### Response
- If we are answering (with or without objection), provide a substantive
  response based on the facts I supply. For interrogatories, answer in
  complete sentences. For document requests, describe the categories of
  documents that will be produced, any withholdings, and the form of
  production.
- If we are refusing to answer entirely, state "Objection. [Client] declines
  to respond on the grounds stated above." Only do this when I indicate a full
  refusal is appropriate.
- Subject-to language: Where we object but still respond, open with "Subject
  to and without waiving the foregoing objections, [Client] responds as
  follows:" Use this formula exactly.

### Preservation Note (if applicable)
- If a request triggers an obligation that our client should be aware of
  (e.g., a request touching on ESI that may require a litigation hold
  expansion), add a bracketed note: [PRESERVATION NOTE: ...].

Format the output so each request is reproduced verbatim first, followed by
the objection/response block. Number them to match the original.

Constraints:
- Do not fabricate facts for substantive responses. Where I haven't provided
  enough information to answer, insert [NEED CLIENT INPUT: specific question].
- Match the rules and format conventions of my jurisdiction. Default to
  Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and local rules for the Eastern District of
  North Carolina unless I say otherwise.
- For privilege objections, note that a privilege log entry will be needed but
  do not draft the log entry itself.
- Responses to requests for admission must be "Admitted," "Denied," or a
  qualified response under Rule 36(a)(4) — never ignore the binary framework.

Discovery requests:
{{paste the requests here}}

Client's position / facts:
{{describe what the client's position is, what we're willing to produce, what
we want to resist, and any specific objection theories}}

Jurisdiction / rules:
{{default: FRCP + EDNC Local Rules; override if different}}

Notes / variations

  • For state-court discovery (e.g., NC Rules of Civil Procedure), specify the state rules and adjust the proportionality framework — NC does not have the federal proportionality factors from the 2015 amendments.
  • For privilege log drafting, follow up with a separate prompt: "For each document I list below, draft a privilege log entry with: date, author, recipient(s), document type, privilege asserted, and a description sufficient to establish the privilege without revealing the communication's content."
  • For interrogatory answers that incorporate documents by reference (Rule 33(d)), add: "Where the answer to an interrogatory can be determined by examining business records, draft the response to specify the records from which the answer may be derived and to make them available for inspection."
  • Always have the client review substantive responses for factual accuracy before serving.