§ 2033.290.Motion to compel further response; requirements; time to bring motion; monetary sanctions; failure to obey court order

A response to requests for admission can comply with the formal requirements of Article 2 and still fall short in substance, and this section is the tool for challenging that shortfall. On receiving a response, the requesting party may move to compel a further response on either of two grounds: an answer to a particular request is evasive or incomplete, or an objection lacks merit or is stated too generally to evaluate.

Procedurally, the motion has to be backed by a meet-and-confer declaration, and the court has discretion to accept a concise outline of the disputed requests and responses in place of the separate statement the Rules of Court would otherwise require. Timing matters here more than almost anywhere else in the chapter: the requesting party must give notice of the motion within 45 days of the verified response, or any supplemental verified response, or by whatever later date the parties have agreed to in writing, or the right to compel a further response is waived. A mandatory monetary sanction runs against whichever side loses the motion, absent substantial justification or unjust circumstances. And if a party disobeys an order compelling further response, the court may go further still and order that the matters involved in the requests be deemed admitted, in addition to or instead of a further sanction.