Civil Litigation
Sep. 30, 2019
Document production games run amok
This year I authored Senate Bill 17 to mitigate some of the gamesmanship that has become endemic in civil litigation. The measure encourages the initial disclosure of information and discovery materials, further discourages gamesmanship by imposing a $250 sanction on a party, person, or attorney who fails to act in good faith in response to a request for documents, and authorizes the court to require the offending attorney to report the sanction to the State Bar.
Thomas J. Umberg
Phone: (949) 679-0052
Email: tumberg@umbergzipser.com
Senator Thomas J. Umberg is chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and represents Senate District 34. Umberg is a retired U.S. Army Colonel, former federal prosecutor and small businessman.
In July 2018 our firm served a relatively routine request for production of documents in a business litigation matter. After a year of gamesmanship, the motion to compel production was heard on September 2019. We are awaiting the court's final decision. Assuming the court adopts its tentative decision, we hope to receive the few hundred documents requested in December 2019. Unfortunately, this 17-month interval between request and production is not unique or even amon...
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