Deutsche Unternehmen und die US-amerikanische Discovery

Pre-trial discovery is of central importance in US civil proceedings and often causes considerable costs for the party facing it. The American Rule generally requires each party to bear these costs themselves. In this study, the author analyses how a party facing unwarranted production requests for documents located in Germany could have the costs they incur in that discovery procedure reimbursed in follow-up proceedings in German courts from both a practical and a theoretical perspective. After a comparative analysis of both the German and US civil procedural systems, the author examines to what extent the party facing production requests for documents located in Germany must comply and the possible objections they could rely on. The author then analyses potential grounds for the reimbursement of the document production costs under German substantive law, as well as practical issues such as international jurisdiction and the impact of the prior proceedings in the US on potential reimbursement claims.