UPDATED January 4, 2023

Effective January 1, 2023, Caifornia Code of Civil Procedure § 2016  which authorized authorized the court to conduct an informal discovery conference upon request of a party or on the court’s own motion was REPEALED.

As a Discovery Referee, I found the process helpful and incorporated it into many of my discovery orders.  I encourage parties to continue using informal discovery conferences as they are productive.  Agree to stipulate to extending the time to bring a motion to compel further responses in order to meet and confer in good faith.  Consider bringing in a discovery referee for the limited purposed of aiding you in the process.Continue Reading If Meet and Confer Fails, Ask for Help

A close-up of a Baseball or Softball Home Plate Umpire

Recently I received an e-mail from an attorney who followed my advice regarding General Objections.  It went like this:

“I read your article ‘Why you Need to Bring a Motion to Strike General Objections,’ and filed a ‘Motion to Strike Defendants’ Preliminary Statement and Unmeritorious Objections.’  The Preliminary Statement contained many of the issues you pointed out in your article, and each of defendants’ responses to interrogatories and document requests contained the same 28 lines of objections.  The court then separated the motions to compel from the motions to strike and refused to rule on the motion to strike stating “There is no such motion.” Is the court correct?”

Continue Reading DISCOVERY GAMES AND MISCONCEPTIONS – Is the Court Correct That There is No Motion to Strike in Discovery?

There are three motions that you can bring–(1) Motion to Compel, (2) Motion to Compel Further Responses, and (3) Motion to have matters Deemed Admitted. All of them have their place in your discovery plan but two of them –Motion to Compel Further Responses and Motions to Have Matters Deemed Admitted must be in your arsenal. Though they appear to be the same motions you would use for interrogatories, inspection demands, and depositions there are a few noteworthy twists and turns.
Continue Reading Request for Admissions-THE MOTIONS

Nine months after the Special Interrogatories were propounded, the Discovery Referee, found that the plaintiffs had “deliberately misconstrued the question” as to economic damages and determined that “the objections and each of them to be unreasonable, evasive, lacking in legal merit and without justification”. Clement at 1284 The Referee recommended that the motion to compel further responses be granted and that plaintiffs were to reimburse defendant $4,950.00 for legal fees, $40 for filing the motions to compel and $1,642.50 for defendants portion of the Discovery Referee’s fees for a total sanction of $6,632.50. The trial court agreed with the recommendation.
Continue Reading Garbage Objections = Sanctions