Rule 200(1) (the Rule) of the Alberta Rules of Court1 affords a party the right, without an order, to examine for discovery an opposing party and, in the case of a corporation, the corporation's representative and the employees and former employees who have knowledge of the matters raised in the pleadings as a result of their employment. Due to the object of the Rule, mainly to allow pre-trial disclosure of relevant and material information that is not privileged, an increasingly broad interpretation has been applied by the courts to the Rule through the progressive and expanding definition of who is considered to be an "employee."
This article originally appeared in Volume 45, No. 4 of the Alberta Law Review.