My Reading on ASQ CQA HB Part I-IA~IE-s

Part IE2
Proprietary Information
Disclosure of proprietary information can come about because of the legal process itself. An
auditor completes audit checklists, makes notes of the results of the audit, and often makes
copies of information supporting the findings of the audit. These notes, completed checklists,
and copies find their way into the audit record and are kept for a specified period of time. If a
lawsuit is initiated during that time, the contents of the file may become available for ―discovery‖
by the parties to the lawsuit. Records of both internal and external audits are subject to
discovery by parties in a lawsuit. For example, if a supplier to your organization is party to a
lawsuit and your organization conducted an audit (external) of the supplier, your records are
subject to discovery. The same rights of discovery are true for both civil and criminal legal
proceedings. Through discovery, these records can become public. This is one of the main
reasons an auditor should not make copies of or take notes on proprietary information when
auditing a company. It is also a major reason for keeping extraneous comments out of the audit
record. Such comments can come back to haunt an auditor at the most inappropriate time.
Keywords:
an auditor should not make copies of or take notes on proprietary information when auditing a
company.
Meaning: Discovery, in the law of common law jurisdictions, is a pre-trial procedure in a lawsuit in which each party, through
the law of civil procedure, can obtain evidence from the other party or parties by means of discovery devices such as a request for
answers to interrogatories, request for production of documents, request for admissions and depositions. Discovery can be
obtained from non-parties using subpoenas ( 法 院 传 票 ). When a discovery request is objected to, the requesting party may seek
the assistance of the court by filing a motion to compel discovery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_%28law%29
Charlie Chong/ Fion Zhang