§ 2030.290.Failure to serve timely response; waiver of rights; motion for relief from

Missing the response deadline in Section 2030.260 carries a real cost under this section, not just a late filing. A party who fails to serve a timely response waives two things outright: the option under Section 2030.230 to point to business records instead of answering directly, and every objection it might otherwise have raised, including privilege and work-product objections that would normally be available. That waiver applies automatically the moment the deadline passes without a timely response, without any need for the propounding party to do anything first.

The waiver is not necessarily permanent. On motion, a court may relieve the responding party from it, but only on a two-part showing: the party has since served a response that substantially complies with the format and content rules in Sections 2030.210 through 2030.240, and the original failure to respond on time resulted from mistake, inadvertence, or excusable neglect rather than deliberate delay or indifference. Absent that relief, the propounding party can move to compel a response to the interrogatories outright, and subdivision (c) makes the consequences of that motion pointed: the court must impose a monetary sanction under Chapter 7 against whichever side loses the motion, unless that side acted with substantial justification or a sanction would otherwise be unjust, and if the responding party still disobeys an order compelling answers, the court can escalate to an issue, evidence, or even terminating sanction, on top of or instead of a further monetary sanction.