Rule 37.Failure to Make or Cooperate in Discovery: Sanctions.

Rule 37 gives discovery its teeth. When a deponent won’t answer a question, an entity won’t designate a witness under Rule 30(b)(6) or 31(a), a party won’t answer an interrogatory under Rule 33, or a party won’t permit inspection under Rule 34, the party missing that discovery can move to compel an answer, a designation, or production. The motion must certify that the movant first tried in good faith to work it out without court involvement, and an evasive or incomplete answer counts the same as no answer at all.

Expenses follow the outcome of that motion. If the motion succeeds, or the discovery shows up only after the motion was filed, the court can make the resisting party or its attorney pay the reasonable expenses of bringing the motion, including attorney’s fees, unless the resistance was substantially justified, the movant never tried to resolve it first, or an award would otherwise be unjust. The reverse applies if the motion fails: the court can make the movant pay the other side’s expenses on the same standard. If the motion is granted in part and denied in part, the court can apportion expenses between the parties. An order compelling discovery can also state up front that failing to comply within thirty days, or whatever other time the court or the parties set, results in dismissal or a default judgment.

Disobeying an order to provide discovery, including an order under this rule or Rule 35, opens the door to serious consequences: the court can treat disputed facts as established against the disobedient party, bar that party from supporting or opposing designated claims or defenses, strike pleadings, stay the case, dismiss it, or enter a default judgment. Refusing to be sworn or to answer after the court has directed it can be punished as contempt, and the court can add contempt sanctions for disobeying most other discovery orders, though not an order to submit to a physical or mental examination. Special provisions apply when a party fails to produce someone else for an examination ordered under Rule 35(a), unless that party shows it cannot produce the person. Whatever sanction the court chooses, it can also require the disobedient party or its attorney to pay the reasonable expenses the failure caused, absent substantial justification or other unfairness.

A separate provision covers a party who denies a request for admission under Rule 36 and later loses on that exact point. The party who proved the fact or the document’s genuineness can ask the court to order the other side to pay the expenses of that proof, including attorney’s fees. The court will decline only if the request was objectionable, the admission sought was not substantially important, the party had reasonable grounds to think it would win the point, or some other good reason justifies the refusal.

Rule 37 also addresses a party who fails to show up for its own deposition, fails to answer or object to interrogatories, or fails to respond to a request for inspection at all. Any of those triggers the same sanctions available for disobeying a discovery order, short of contempt, and a motion over the interrogatory or inspection failures must include the same good-faith certification required for a motion to compel. A party cannot excuse total silence by arguing the discovery was objectionable unless it already had a pending motion for a protective order under Rule 26(c).