OOPS!!! Now What Do I Do?
By Katherine L. Gallo and Christopher E. Cobey
Forum – Consumer Attorneys of California, April 2004
The Docket – San Mateo County Bar Association, June/July 2002

You are a good lawyer. You run an efficient law office with the most current calendaring software. You have a secretary that always brings to your attention all-important deadlines. Yet, there are those times when something slips through the cracks and you have to pull the rabbit out of the hat. Unfortunately, the Discovery Act is full of pesky little deadlines and traps for the unwary. However, there are many ways to pull that rabbit out of the hat when it comes to the Discovery Act.

Scenario #1 : You are a solo practitioner and you have been in trial in a neighboring county for the last three weeks. You thought you had advised everyone that you were going to be unavailable during the time you were in trial. However, what shows up in your stack of mail, but a motion to compel responses to discovery. The motion states (1) that the time to respond has passed and no responses have been provided, (2) you never asked for an extension and (3) the court should grant the motion ordering you to respond and that all your objections including claims of privilege are waived. What do you do?

Let's go back to what you should have done prior to your three-week trial. You should have contacted opposing counsel and requested an extension of time to respond to the discovery. Once the extension is obtained then the extension must "be confirmed in a writing that specifies the extended date for service of a response." See C.C.P. Sections 2030(i), 2031(j), and 2033(I).

• Read full article (pdf)

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• "The Codes—They are a Changin' "
  
• "Oops!!! Now what do I do?"
  
• "I Have This Great Doctor You Gotta See"
  
• "Do You Have All Your Ducks (Experts) in a Row?"
  
• "Why Aren't You Using Requests for Admissions?"
  
• "Let the Other Guy Do the Work… Which Parts of Litigation-Related Investigation Are Not Protected from Disclosure?"
  
• "Five of the Most Annoying Discovery Objections by Opposing Counsel and the Rulings That Are Sure to Follow"