Rule 1.517.Consequences of failure to make disclosures or discovery

Rule 1.517(1) supplies the tool for enforcing every other discovery rule: a motion to compel. It runs to the court where the action is pending, or, for deposition disputes, to the court in the district where the deposition is taken. The rule lists the specific failures it reaches — a missed disclosure under Rule 1.500, a deponent's refusal to answer under Rule 1.701 or 1.710, an entity's failure to designate a witness under Rule 1.707(5), or a party's failure to answer an interrogatory under Rule 1.509 or to produce documents or permit inspection under Rule 1.512 — and treats an evasive or incomplete answer the same as no answer at all. If the time to resist the motion has passed without a resistance being filed, the court may grant it without a hearing, and any order granting the motion must warn that noncompliance can bring further sanctions. Rule 1.517(1)(d) shifts expenses toward whichever side caused the dispute: if the motion succeeds (or the discovery is produced only after the motion is filed), the court generally must order the noncompliant party or its attorney to pay the moving party's reasonable expenses, including attorney's fees, unless the opposition was substantially justified or an award would be unjust — and the same logic runs the other way if the motion is denied, or the court may apportion expenses when a motion is granted in part and denied in part.

Rule 1.517(2) covers what happens once a party defies an order to provide discovery. If a deponent refuses to be sworn or to answer after the court where the deposition is being taken has directed otherwise, that refusal can be treated as contempt of that court. Where the action itself is pending, a party's or its officer's disobedience to a discovery order opens the door to a range of responses: treating disputed facts as established in the moving party's favor, barring the disobedient party from supporting or opposing designated claims or defenses, striking pleadings, staying the case, dismissing it, or entering a default judgment, and treating the failure as contempt — except a refusal to submit to a physical or mental examination, which the rule exempts from the contempt sanction. In addition to whichever of those the court chooses, it must ordinarily order the disobedient party or its attorney to pay the reasonable expenses, including attorney's fees, that the failure caused, unless the failure was substantially justified or an award would be unjust.

Rule 1.517(3) addresses a party who fails to disclose or supplement information required under Rules 1.500, 1.503(4), or 1.508(3): that party cannot use the undisclosed information or witness at a hearing, on a motion, or at trial, unless the failure was substantially justified or harmless, and the court can add expense-shifting or other sanctions from Rule 1.517(2)(b) on top of that exclusion. A separate provision addresses a party who refuses to admit something under Rule 1.510 and is later proven wrong: the requesting party can recover the reasonable expenses of proving the point, including attorney's fees, unless the request was itself objectionable under Rule 1.510, the admission sought had no real importance, the refusing party had reasonable grounds to believe it might prevail on the matter, or some other good reason explains the refusal.

Rule 1.517(4) covers a party who fails to appear for its own deposition, to serve interrogatory answers or objections under Rule 1.509, or to serve a written response to an inspection request under Rule 1.512 — the court may impose several of the sanctions listed under Rule 1.517(2)(b), and the failure cannot be excused on the ground that the discovery was objectionable unless the party had already sought a protective order under Rule 1.504. Before filing any discovery motion at all, Rule 1.517(5) requires certifying that the movant made a good-faith attempt to resolve the dispute by personally conferring, or trying to confer, with the other side, stating the date and time of that effort. Rule 1.517(6) offers a safe harbor for electronically stored information lost through the routine, good-faith operation of an electronic system, protecting a party from sanctions absent exceptional circumstances, and Rule 1.517(7) lets the court order expenses against a party or attorney who fails to participate in good faith in developing a discovery plan under Rule 1.507.