In Georgia, your spouse generally has thirty days to respond to your discovery requests, such as interrogatories, request to produce documents, or request to admit. There are several key exceptions to this rule including: when discovery is filed with a complaint (in which case the deadline is generally forty-five days); when the requests are served by mail you have three additional days to respond under the mail rule; and the trial court can always shortened or lengthen the amount of time to respond in its discretion. Also, in Fulton County, there is an additional exception for the mandatory interrogatories and request to produce issued by the county that generally requires compliance within thirty days.
But what happens when someone fails to respond to the discovery responses? First, by failing to respond, a party can waive certain objections to discovery request. Second, the party that is seeking the responses can seek the court’s attention to force a response.
Seeking the court’s intervention in a discovery matter can be a rather lengthy process. Uniform Superior Court Rule 6.4(b) generally requires that you first make a good faith effort to obtain the discovery responses without the court’s intervention. Usually, this attempt is made in writing to provide for assurances that the other party understands the severity of your request and to provide you with documentary evidence that the attempt was made.