Opinion ID: 2070680
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Adverse Future Consequences of a Contrary Holding

Text: We also seek to avoid the foreseeable legacy of a contrary ruling on this issue. If we were to reverse and rule that the hearing justice should have granted the motion to compel, such a holding would not stop at endorsing the submission of unjustified, overbroad, and unripe requests for confrontationclause grist when, as here, they have been improperly propounded one year before trial pursuant to Rule 16 discovery. It would also give other defendants every reason to frame and submit such overbroad requests in the hope that, as here, they will be denied well in advance of trial. If so, these defendants and their counsel could then relax and rest assured that they have thereby preserved a surefire issue for appellate review and eventual reversal if any later verdict comes in against them at trial. The fact that they failed to raise this issue with the trial justice would not be held against them on appeal or so they would arguebecause, after all, this court does not require bulldog-like tenacity from defendants. However, we usually do require something more than potted-plant-like passivity for defendants to preserve alleged trial errors for review. What is even worse, however, is that such a ruling would open the door for the type of potential discovery sandbagging described above, an insidious practice that should not be rewarded in this manner.