in court cases where one side is ordered to release all documents pertaining to a certain event/subject, what stops that party from simply hiding or destroying the evidence?

Question

I understand doing so would be illegal of course but nevertheless if you are a guilty and you know it is it really going to be such a big leap for you to destroy your own incriminating evidence? I might of course be missing something or oversimplifying as well since my only knowledge of the court system is honestly from TV/movies.

In: Other

Answer 1

Also, to add to Bonk’s comment, most documents are usually part of a “chain”
Of documents…you mail me, I call Fred, who emails bonk, and so on. Then, in court, when you are suing Fred, and he cant “find” the emails anymore, and his phone records got mysteriously “lost”, he’s still screwed because the people on either side of the chain can show that those documents should exist.

All properly done transactions generate a “paper trail” of some sort. It is almost impossible to function without, even if the paper trail is becoming more digital and less tangible!