Employee Handbooks Are Discoverable in Litigation

Employee policies and handbooks are discoverable. See e.g. Hall v. L-3 Commc’ns Corp., No. 2:15-CV-00231-SAB, 2017 WL 216707, at *3 (E.D. Wash. Jan. 18, 2017) (Noting that Employment and hiring policies and employee handbooks are discoverable and may be circumstantial evidence of discrimination or pretext.) Employee handbooks and policies should be updated regularly to comply with changes in state and federal law and regulation. Employee handbooks and work place policies are often among the first documents requested in litigation. They create a metric against which the actions of the organization are compared. For this reason, Employee Handbooks should be carefully drafted and revised regularly with the assistance of legal counsel.