The Minnesota motion to compel: failing to disclose and failing to admit are separate provisions
Minnesota procedure · Last verified August 17, 2026
Minnesota's Rule 37 splits its consequences into distinct provisions rather than running everything through one sanctions list. Two are worth identifying before you file:
- Failure to Disclose or Supplement — aimed at the disclosure regime and the continuing duty
- Failure to Admit — the cost of a denial that later proves wrong
Choosing the right provision matters, because the remedies differ.
The certification
Minn. R. Civ. P. 37.01 requires the motion to include a certification that the movant has in good faith conferred or attempted to confer with the party failing to make disclosure or discovery, in an effort to obtain it without court action.
"Conferred or attempted to confer" — a party who will not engage cannot block the motion by silence.
One forum
Rule 37.01(a):
shall be made to the court in which the action is pending.
Minnesota does not split the forum for depositions or non-parties. Everything goes to the court where the action is pending.
The specific motions
Rule 37.01(b) carries the familiar grounds — a deponent who fails to answer, a corporation that fails to designate, a party that fails to answer an interrogatory, and a party that fails to respond to or permit inspection — together with a route to compel disclosure.
Rule 37.01(c) carries the evasive-answer provision: an evasive or incomplete answer or response is treated as a failure to answer or respond.
Fees tilt toward the movant
Rule 37.01(d) is headed Expenses and Sanctions, and Minnesota's structure is asymmetric: the award is mandatory when the motion is granted and discretionary when it is denied, in each case subject to substantial justification or other circumstances making an award unjust.
That tilt makes a well-founded Minnesota motion cheaper to bring than the equivalent in North Carolina, Virginia or Mississippi, where a denied motion carries a mandatory award against the movant.
As in the other modern rules, filing before attempting in good faith to obtain the material is an exception to the award — so the certification protects your costs as well as your motion.
Failure to disclose or supplement
Minnesota gives this its own provision, headed Failure to Disclose or Supplement. It matters most late in a case, when an earlier response has gone stale and the other side has not updated it.
Where the problem is a missing supplement rather than a missing answer, this is the provision to cite — the ordinary motion to compel is aimed at something that was never provided, not at something that became incomplete.
Failure to admit
The separate Failure to Admit provision allows a party who proves a matter the other side wrongly refused to admit to recover the reasonable expenses of making that proof, including attorney fees, subject to the usual exceptions.
Well-targeted requests for admission early in the case therefore carry a cost consequence, and this is the provision that delivers it.
Once an order is disobeyed
Minnesota separates the two sanction sources:
| Provision | Court |
|---|---|
| Sanctions by Court in County Where Deposition Is Taken | contempt where a deponent fails to be sworn or answer after being directed to do so |
| Sanctions by Court in Which Action is Pending | the substantive list — deemed facts, preclusion, striking pleadings, dismissal, default judgment |
So although the motion goes only to the court where the action is pending, the contempt power for a deposition refusal sits with the county where the deposition is taken.
Before you file
- Confirm proper service and that the response period has run — see responding to a Minnesota complaint.
- Confer and certify it.
- Pick the right provision — compel, failure to disclose or supplement, or failure to admit.
- File in the court where the action is pending.
If the case is heading toward a dispositive motion, see responding to Minnesota summary judgment. If judgment has already been entered, see setting aside a Minnesota default judgment.
How Minnesota compares
| Minnesota | Wisconsin | Iowa | Federal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conference certification required | yes | — | no | yes |
| Single forum for the motion | yes | — | no | no |
| Fees when granted | shall | — | shall | must |
| Fees when denied | may | — | — | must |
| Separate failure-to-supplement provision | yes | — | no | no |
| Separate failure-to-admit provision | yes | — | no | yes |
| Contempt sits with the deposition county | yes | — | — | yes |
A short checklist
- Certify the conference — it protects the motion and your costs.
- File where the action is pending.
- Use the disclosure-and-supplement provision where the problem is a stale response.
- Use the failure-to-admit provision after proving something wrongly denied.
- Quote Rule 37.01(c) where the response was evasive or incomplete.
- Remember the fee tilt favors you on a granted motion, but a denial is still discretionary against you.
- For a deposition refusal, remember contempt lies in the deposition county, not where the action is pending.
Where these rules live
- Minn. R. Civ. P. 26 — General Provisions Governing Discovery
- Minn. R. Civ. P. 33 — Interrogatories to Parties
- Minn. R. Civ. P. 34 — Production of Documents and Things
- Minn. R. Civ. P. 36 — Requests for Admission
- Minn. R. Civ. P. 37 — Failure to Make Disclosures or To Cooperate in Discovery: Sanctions
This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice, and what makes an opposition substantially justified is developed in case law this site doesn't cover.