Friday, November 14, 2014

Resisting Discovery

Rule 37 of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure deals with the penalties for failure to respond to discovery.  There is a lesser known provision of the Rule under section (e) which provides as follows:

"(e) Additional Sanctions.  In addition to the application of those sanctions, specified in Rule 26(d) and other provisions of this rule, the court may impose upon any party or counsel such sanctions as may be just, including the payment of reasonable expenses and attorneys’ fees, if any party or counsel (i) fails without good cause to cooperate in the framing of an appropriate discovery plan by agreement under Rule 26(c), or (ii) otherwise abuses the discovery process in seeking, making or resisting discovery."

Section (ii) deals with resisting discovery.  This can have some far reaching consequences.  For example, suppose a party objects to a subpoena issued which delays discovery.  This can lead to an award of fees and expenses under Rule 37 (e). 

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