MEXICO Law and Practice Contributed by: Adrián Magallanes, Diego Sierra and Rodrigo Barradas Muñiz, Von Wobeser y Sierra, SC
5.4 Alternatives to Discovery Mechanisms
lack of subject matter or territorial jurisdiction, obtaining a ruling usually takes between three and six months from the answer to the complaint being filed. A party may not request for a motion to be ruled on an urgent basis, except for emergency interim measures (see 6.2 Arrangements for Obtaining Urgent Injunctive Relief ).
The alternative to discovery, but with a very limited scope, is to start preparatory proceed- ings before the court, in which the plaintiff can request, for example, the examination of wit- nesses, a judicial inspection, a declaration from the opposing party, or the showing of a chattel. This type of preparatory proceedings is not used often, because the law imposes strict limits – for example, a party may only request to examine witnesses if they are elderly or at risk of death. Each party is required to exhibit all the docu- mentary evidence to support their case with the complaint, answer to the complaint (and coun- terclaim, if applicable), and reply to the answer. 5.5 Legal Privilege Mexican law recognises the concept of legal privilege, but its regulation is not as developed as in other countries. The applicable provisions are scattered throughout different acts and regu- lations, and the federal judiciary has issued very few precedents on the topic. This often presents challenges for determining the scope of legal privilege. The Professions Law imposes a generic obliga- tion on every professional to keep matters that are revealed to them by virtue of their profes- sion confidential, and federal courts have held that attorney-client privilege is a consequence of the constitutional rights to privacy and defence. In fact, Procedural Codes protect those that receive information through the exercise of their profession and exempt them from testifying as witnesses in trial, and the Criminal Codes make the violation of professional secrecy a crime. There is no specific statutory regulation of attor- ney-client privilege, so in principle the same obli- gations apply to external and in-house counsel.
5. Discovery 5.1 Discovery and Civil Cases
Discovery is not regulated under Mexican law, which means that parties do not have the oppor- tunity to depose potential witnesses or further investigate or develop the facts of the case once a complaint has been filed. The exception that allows a party to obtain documents from the opposing party is if they identify the specific documents and declare to the judge that they are unable to produce them, asking the judge to issue an order against the party that has the document (Article 1061, Section III, of the Com- merce Code). 5.2 Discovery and Third Parties The only way to obtain documents from third par- ties that are not named as a plaintiff or defendant is to make the same declaration as explained under 5.1 Discovery and Civil Cases , so that the judge can issue a production order against the third party. However, the scope is limited. 5.3 Discovery in This Jurisdiction Discovery is not required, and is in fact not even regulated under Mexican law.
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