Court Imposes “Death Penalty Order” for Discovery Violations, Rejects Reliance on Retention Policy
Crews v. Avco Corp., No. 70756-6-I, 2015 WL 1541179 (Wash. Ct. App. Apr. 6, 2015)
In this case, the trial court held Defendant in contempt and ultimately imposed a “death penalty order” for discovery violations, including the failure to produce relevant information. Notably, the trial court rejected Defendant’s reliance on its document retention policy as an explanation for why the information was unavailable. On appeal, the appellate court affirmed the imposition of sanctions but remanded for amendment of the final judgment to reflect any offsets authorized by statute.