Discovery Deficiency Letter
(NJ)

Summary

This template discovery deficiency letter may be used in New Jersey state court litigation to facilitate compliance with N.J. Ct. R. 4:23, when a party upon whom you have served discovery requests has either failed to respond or has given a response that is inadequate, incomplete, or otherwise deficient. This template includes practical guidance, drafting notes, and alternate clauses. N.J. Ct. R. 1:5-2(c) and N.J. Ct. R. 4:23-5(a)(3) require you to confer with the opposing party before filing a motion to compel discovery. Thus, consider sending this letter after: • You have served a party with discovery requests • The party has responded to those discovery requests (or has failed to) –and– • You have found problems with their response This letter contains a number of different sections and options depending on what problems there were with the responding party's discovery responses. There are separate sections for interrogatories and for requests for production of documents. Within each of those categories, there are paragraphs that address a lack of a response, an incomplete response, an improper invocation of a privilege or an objection, and other problems. Pick and choose from among these sections as your specific situation requires. For a full listing of key content covering fundamental civil litigation tasks throughout a New Jersey state court litigation lifecycle, see Civil Litigation Fundamentals Resource Kit (NJ). For practice notes on drafting discovery requests generally, see Requests for Admission: Drafting RFAs (NJ), Document Requests: Drafting and Serving RFPs (NJ), and Interrogatories: Drafting and Serving Interrogatories (NJ).