When Discovery Can Go to a Reporter, and When It Can’t.

Sharing non-confidential discovery material with a reporter ahead of a filing is a legitimate tool only where no protective order, court rule or Rule 3.6 limits it. It’s also the tool most likely to be misused.

The rule is simple to state and strict to follow: nothing goes to a reporter that isn’t already outside any protective order, and nothing goes without counsel’s explicit sign-off on both the material and the timing. It only ever applies to what’s already public or already producible without restriction.

Why timing is the risk

The legal risk in a strategic disclosure is rarely the material itself — it’s the sequencing. Sharing something true and non-confidential the day before a hearing can look calculated in a way that undermines the case’s credibility, even when nothing improper happened. I coordinate timing with trial counsel specifically to avoid the appearance problem, not just the substantive one. Used carefully, this tool builds coverage ahead of a filing. Used carelessly, it becomes the story instead of the case.