Discovery is one of the most difficult, time-consuming, and challenging aspects of litigation, particularly in family law. Divorce cases require the parties to produce and exchange a substantial amount of financial information and other documents related to child custody and welfare. Often, this process proceeds as it is supposed to with both parties producing the required information and documents. Sometimes, however, parties will fail to honor their discovery obligations, outright refuse to respond, or respond incompletely.
That is when experienced counsel comes in handy. It takes real time, effort, and dedication to pursue consequences for opposing parties for their failure to make discovery. One of our family law attorneys, Kayla Steindorf, had this very problem in one of her cases. Her client’s (now ex) husband failed at every step of the process to provide discovery. He made rude comments instead of responding to many discovery requests, repeatedly writing, “I choose not to invest my time in digging these garbage [sic].” This failure prevented Kayla and her client from accurately assessing the marital assets and debts, and the husband’s income.
After repeated attempts to obtain the discovery, Kayla requested an order to compel production of documents, which was granted. However, when the husband still failed to produce the discovery, Kayla sought all possible discovery sanctions at trial, and she persuaded the judge to strike the husband’s pleadings on all financial matters from the court record and prevent the husband from testifying regarding financial issues. As a result, her client obtained all the financial relief she sought, despite the husband’s attempts to sabotage the process. This was a massive win for her client, so much so that the husband attempted to undo the relief she obtained by taking the matter to the Oregon Court of Appeals.
And so Kayla went before the Court of Appeals in response. The Court of Appeals reached a decision on November 15, 2023, upholding the substantive relief she obtained for her client from the trial court, under the case title, “In re Marriage of Noor.” The Court of Appeals found that the trial court judge was within his authority to sanction the husband for violating the discovery process and that Kayla successfully defended that ruling on appeal.
Here at the Reynolds Law Firm, we pride ourselves on going the extra mile for our clients and taking action to prevent opposing parties from violating our client’s rights and interests, and we provide the same quality of representation to all our clients. We congratulate Kayla on her win, both at the trial court, and before the Court of Appeals!
Link to case: https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/6556eccfc79dcb34ed81a41a
