Requests for production seek documents and electronically stored information within a party’s possession, custody or control. Volume makes them the dominant expense in commercial litigation and the reason proportionality has become the central discovery concept.
Possession, custody or control extends beyond what a party physically holds to what it has the legal right to obtain — records held by an agent, an affiliate, or in some cases a foreign parent. Employees’ personal devices used for work are contested ground and should be addressed early.
Proportionality limits discovery to what is proportional to the needs of the case, weighing the amount in controversy, the importance of the issues, the parties’ resources, and whether the burden outweighs the likely benefit. It is an affirmative limit, not a rhetorical flourish.
Form of production. Native files, searchable images with load files, or paper. Agree the form and the metadata fields in an ESI protocol before collection, because re-producing a large set in a different form is pure waste.
Objections must state whether anything is being withheld. A response saying documents will be produced subject to objections, without saying what is held back, invites a motion.
Practically, the response is only as good as the collection: identify custodians, preserve, collect defensibly, then search. Searching first and preserving later is how spoliation happens.