2008-10-20 Discovery Abuse Sanctions in the District of Columbia Circuit

In Perez v. Berhanu --- F.Supp.2d ----, 2008 WL 4604065 (D.D.C. 2008) the Court provides a good analysis of discovery sanctions approach by the D.C. Circuit. In this case, the Court discusses that an imposition of the most severe sanctions, and the D.C. Circuit's requirement that “willfulness or at least gross negligence” is required to justify the most severe discovery sanctions). In this matter, the discovery abuse was so egregious (failure to respond to discovery requests) that the Court granted a default judgment rather than compelling response from the defendant.