The Rules of Court in NL promote the early resolution of claims by mandating pretrial disclosure of documents and deposition of parties.

Documentary disclosure occurs via the mandatory production by each party of a List of Documents, (or 'LOD'), which lists all documents to be disclosed, as well as a list of documents which will not be disclosed on the basis of privilege or other legal basis. All LODs must reflect all of the documents which are related (which can result in an obligation to disclose more than relevant documents) to the issues in the action, and the list must include a signed certification by the lawyer for the party confirming that the lawyer is not aware of any document not disclosed which should have been disclosed. LODs must be issued 10 days after the close of pleadings, or 7 days after the receipt of an originating document if there are no pleadings.

Examination for Discovery can occur without an order from the Court any time after the pleadings have closed, and generally happen after the disclosure of documents described above. Any person may be orally examined on oath or affirmation by any party regarding any matter that is relevant to the subject matter of the proceeding and is not privileged.

In the Discovery process, a person being examined is questioned verbally by lawyers for the purpose of "discovering" all of the facts and evidence the adverse party has in its possession and which are not otherwise contained in the documents. A person being examined shall answer any question relevant to their knowledge and the subject matter, even if it is outside the scope of the pleadings. The parties may also question on the documents themselves.

Parties also have the option of serving "interrogatories" on opposing parties. "Interrogatories" are questions that must relate to the same matters that are dealt with examinations for Discovery. They must be answered by the receiving party, within ten days of their receipt. The answers to these questions may be used at trial to the same extent as evidence from an examination for Discovery.

For Summary/Expedited Trial, if the proceeding is ordered to move ahead towards a trial, the Court may order that Discovery be limited to matters not covered by affidavits filed on the application or cross examination of them. The Court may also order that the discovery be completed in a certain time frame that it be dispensed with or limited in scope and nature.