Fact work product includes witness statements, investigative reports, photographs, and compiled factual material prepared in anticipation of litigation without counsel's mental impressions.
It may be obtained on a showing of substantial need and inability to obtain the equivalent without undue hardship.
Alternative Names:
Ordinary Work Product, Non-Opinion Work Product
Why it Matters?
The qualified nature of this protection is what parties frequently misjudge, since fact work product is discoverable rather than immune. Contemporaneous witness statements are the recurring example, because a statement taken days after an incident cannot be replicated years later, which supplies both substantial need and undue hardship. Assuming investigative materials are protected without analyzing that exception is a common error.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Is fact work product protected absolutely?
What commonly satisfies that showing?
