Short Emails Not Enough for 'Good Faith' Effort in CIT Discovery Disputes, Trade Court Says

Government lawyers need to actively work with importers to make sure they can comply with discovery requests, the Court of International Trade said in a decision issued Oct. 22. A series of short emails the government exchanged with Great Neck Saw Manufacturers (GNSM), a tool importer facing more than $1 million in penalties for customs violations, does not qualify as a “good faith” effort to confer with the importer as required by CIT rules, the court said. Though GNSM missed the court’s deadline for turning over certain information, and the government gave the company nearly three months extra to comply, there are indications that it may be difficult or impossible for GNSM to comply with the requests, which cover entry documentation dating back to 2005. “The requirement to confer is not met by email exchanges that are little more than perfunctory and simply restate Plaintiff’s demands that GNSM fulfill its discovery obligations,” CIT said. “Given the concerns raised by [GNSM], there may be a need for the parties to compromise, including the possibility that [the government] may have to refine the scope of its interrogatories and document requests,” it said. “Accordingly, the court will order the parties to meet in a good faith effort to resolve the discovery dispute.”