Judge: Margaret L. Oldendorf, Case: 23AHCV00874, Date: 2024-05-13 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23AHCV00874    Hearing Date: May 13, 2024    Dept: P

The Court has read and considered Plaintiff’s six Motions to Compel and Request for Sanctions, as well as Defendant’s Opposition and Plaintiff’s Reply.  The motions to compel are moot. (See fn1 below.)  Regarding sanctions, Plaintiff requests a total of $3,402, calculated as follows:  4.8 hours of work spread across all 6 motions at a rate of $650 per hour for a subtotal of $2,925, plus $477 in assorted filing fees, for a grand total of $3,402.

The Court finds the hourly rate and the amount expended reasonable. Though Defendant's counsel provides a detailed explanation of why discovery responses were not provided earlier (See Stillman Decl. ¶¶ 3-10), the Court does not find that these explanations give counsel substantial justification for not responding nor does it make the imposition of sanctions unjust. Therefore, the Court orders Defendant’s counsel to pay Plaintiff’s Counsel sanctions in the amount of $3,402 within 30 days of this order. 

The Court declines to award any other type of sanctions, including issue sanctions and terminating sanctions.

Dated: May 9, 2024                                                                Judge Jared D. Moses

1 The Court reminds parties that civil discovery is intended to be a self-executing system with minimal judicial intervention. (See Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft v. Superior Ct. (1981) 122 Cal.App.3d 326, 331; Clement v. Alegre (2009) 177 Cal.App.4th 1277, 1291-1292.)