Discovery Deficiency Letter
(TX)

Summary

This template is a discovery deficiency letter, which may be used in civil litigation in Texas district or county court to notify a responding party of deficiencies in the party's response to written discovery requests and to facilitate compliance with the conference requirement under the Texas civil discovery rules. This template includes practical guidance, drafting notes, and alternate clauses. The Texas discovery rules provide that parties and their attorneys are expected to cooperate in discovery and to make any agreements reasonably necessary for the efficient disposition of the case. All discovery motions or requests for hearings relating to discovery must contain a certificate by the party filing the motion or request that a reasonable effort has been made to resolve the dispute without the necessity of court intervention and the effort failed. Tex. R. Civ. P. 191.2. A letter such as this one may be used to document your efforts to resolve any disputes concerning the opposing party's response to your written discovery requests. For example, you may send this letter after: • You have served a party with requests for disclosure, requests for production of documents, interrogatories, and/or requests for admission • The party has responded to those discovery requests (or has failed to respond) –and– • You have found the other party's response to be insufficient This letter contains a number of different sections and options depending on the problems with the responding party's discovery responses. There are separate sections for interrogatories, requests for production of documents, and requests for admission. 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 other objection, and other potential issues. You may pick and choose from among these sections as appropriate to your specific situation. In an appropriate case, you may adapt these paragraphs to address deficiencies in responses to requests for disclosure. This template assumes the responding party is represented by counsel. If not, it should be addressed directly to the responding party. For more information on drafting discovery requests generally, see Requests for Disclosure: Making the Request (TX), Document Requests: Drafting and Serving RFPs and Handling Responses (TX), Interrogatories: Drafting and Serving Interrogatories (TX), and Requests for Admission: Drafting and Serving RFAs (TX). For information on moving to compel discovery, see Motion to Compel Discovery: Making and Opposing the Motion (TX). For related templates, see Requests for Production of Documents (RFPs) (TX). For related checklists, see Document Requests: Drafting and Serving RFPs Checklist (TX). For a full listing of key content covering fundamental civil litigation tasks throughout a Texas state court litigation lifecycle, see Civil Litigation Fundamentals Resource Kit (TX).