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You are viewing ARCHIVED CONTENT released online between 1 April 2010 and 24 August 2018 or content that has been selectively archived and is no longer active. Content in this archive is NOT UPDATED, and links may not function.Extract from article by Joshua Scott and Brett Anders
In Liguria Foods, Inc. v. Griffith Laboratories, Inc., Judge Mark Bennett of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa required both plaintiff and defense counsel to show cause why they should not be sanctioned for discovery abuses based on the excessive use of “boilerplate” objections to discovery requests. The issue arose when the court was reviewing a discovery dispute between the parties and noticed numerous objections that the court deemed to be improper “boilerplate objections.” The court subsequently required both parties to submit all of their written discovery responses for the court’s review. The court also notified counsel of its intention to impose sanctions on every attorney who signed discovery responses it they were found to be improper or abusive. Based on its review of the discovery responses the court determined that numerous discovery responses, from both sides, were improper.