Discovery: Central District Of California Case Awarded Some Attorney’s Fees Where Party Responding To Rule 30(b)(6) Notice Failed to Specify Production Date

Practice Point For Litigators:  Specify A Time For Production Or Develop A Good Email Chain!

            In QC Labs v. Green Leaf Lab, LLC, 2019 WL 6797250 (C.D. Cal. July 19, 2019), a responding party to a F.R.Civ. P. 30(b)(6), under Rule 34(b)(2)(B), failed to specify a time for production of documents/EIS even though Rule 34 requires to specify a reasonable response date beyond the date mentioned in the production notice.  The responding party did not indicate an end date for production, even on a rolling basis, which resulted in a motion to compel grant and award of some attorney’s fees/costs to the requesting party.  So, the practice tip for federal practitioners is to specify a reasonable end date or develop an agreement through emails which shows there is no firm deadline, but the parties will communicate about time frames for a “rolling production” where a document/EIS production is time-consuming.