Are draft expert reports discoverable? Federal court clarifies obligations

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Abstract: Valuations performed for litigation purposes raise questions about whether draft reports are discoverable and whether a duty exists to preserve drafts and correspondence related to valuations. In Univ. of Pittsburgh v. Townsend, the federal district court for the Eastern District of Tennessee clarified the rules regarding the discoverability of draft expert reports. The court didn’t read FRCP 26(a)(2) as imposing an affirmative duty to preserve “all documents” or as requiring the disclosure of draft reports, but noted that “draft reports are certainly discoverable.”