(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this birth injury/personal injury case and its proceedings.)
Request For Sanctions
California Code of Civil procedure Section 2023 provides for monetary sanctions where there is a failure to respond to interrogatories, evasive responses and objections lacking substantial justification are misuses of the discovery process. It further specifies that misuses of the discovery process include, but are not limited to, the following: …. (2) Using a discovery method in a manner that does not comply with its specified procedures; ….(4) Failing to respond or to submit to an authorized method of discovery; (5) Making, without substantial justification, an non-meritorious objection to discovery; (6) Making an evasive response to discovery; ….(8) Making or opposing, unsuccessfully and without substantial justification, a motion to compel or to limit discovery; and (9) Failing to confer in person, by telephone, or by letter with an opposing party or attorney in a reasonable and good faith attempt to resolve informally any dispute concerning discovery…… C.C.P. Section 2023.
Plaintiffs propounded special interrogatories to obtain information from defendant regarding the relevant facts and witnesses in the present action. The discovery was not propounded to harass the defendant and was propounded in good faith in order to obtain relevant information in this tragic birth injury matter.
Although agreeing to provide further responses, to date, plaintiff has received no additional interrogatory answers, forcing the present motion to compel. In preparing the instant motion, plaintiffs have spent 5.0 hours at an hourly billing rate of $300.00. It is anticipated that an additional 2.0 hours attending the hearing on the motion. Thus, the total sanctions requested is $2,250.00.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, plaintiffs respectfully request the court grant this motion and compel further responses to special interrogatories by defendant University to be received within ten days of the Court’s order; and issue an order imposing sanctions against defendant and its attorneys of record in the sum of $2,100.00.
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.