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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

GAINESVILLE DIVISION

CAMI ADAMS,

Plaintiff,

v. CASE NO. 1:10-cv-0067-SPM -GRJ

CAVALARY PORTFOLIO SERVICES

LLC and WAGNER &HUNT, P.A.,

Defendants.

_____________________________/

O R D E R

Pending before the Court is Plaintiff’s Motion To Compel Outstanding Discovery. 

(Doc. 25.) Defendants have filed a Response (Doc. 29) and therefore this matter is ripe

for review. 

In this Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Florida Consumer Collection

Practices Act case, Plaintiffs served interrogatories and a request for production upon

Defendants on June 3, 2010. Response were due in early July 2010. Defendants failed

to serve any responses and accordingly Plaintiff’s counsel contacted the Defendants on

July 30, 2010 to demand responses to the outstanding discovery. Plaintiff’s counsel

made several unsuccessful attempts to schedule a conference with counsel for

Defendants. Finally, on August 16, 2010 Defendants’ counsel agreed to provide

responses to the discovery within ten days. No responses were filed with the agreed

upon ten day period and therefore on September 3, 2010 Plaintiff was forced to file the

instant motion to compel. In her motion to compel Plaintiff requests the Court to enter
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an order compelling Defendants to provide responses to the outstanding discovery

requests and for the Court to award any further relief deemed appropriate.

Defendants filed a one page response to the motion to compel advising that the

discovery responses were provided to Plaintiff on September 7, 2010. No explanation

was provided for the delay other than “inadvertence.” Defendants conclude by

suggesting that the motion is moot because responses have been filed.

An award of attorney’s fees is mandated by Rule 37(a)(5)(A) where a party, as 1

here, has failed to respond to discovery thus necessitating the filing of a motion to

compel. While Plaintiff has not expressly requested an award of fees, Plaintiff has

requested that the Court award any further relief deemed appropriate. Accordingly,

because the discovery was provided only after the Plaintiff was required to file a motion

to compel, an award of fees incurred in preparing the motion to compel may be

appropriate. 

Accordingly, to the extent that Plaintiff wants to request reimbursement for the

reasonable attorney’s fees incurred in preparing and filing the motion to compel,

Plaintiff shall file within ten (10) days of this order a motion requesting fees with an

appropriate affidavit of the attorney time incurred and the billing rate of the attorney(s)

performing the services. In the event Plaintiff files a motion for fees, Defendants shall

have ten (10) days after service of Plaintiff’s motion to file a response to the amount

See Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(a)(5)(A) (“If the motion is granted—or if the disclosure or requested

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discovery is provided after the motion was filed—the court must, after giving an opportunity to be heard,

require the party . . . whose conduct necessitated the motion . . . to pay the movant’s reasonable

expenses incurred in making the motion, including attorney’s fees . . . “) (emphasis added).

Case No: 1:10-cv-00187-MP -GRJ
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requested. In the event the Plaintiff does not file a motion within ten days the Court will

assume the Plaintiff has elected not to request an award of fees.

Accordingly, it is ORDERED:

1. Plaintiff’s Motion To Compel Outstanding Discovery is GRANTED. To the

extent that Defendants have not already done so, Defendants shall forthwith provide full

and complete responses to Plaintiff’s interrogatories and requests for production. 

2. Plaintiff shall have until October 4, 2010, to file a motion for an award of fees

incurred in preparing and filing the motion to compel. Defendants shall file a response

within ten days. 

DONE AND ORDERED this 23 day of September, 2010. 

rd

s/Gary R. Jones

GARY R. JONES

United States Magistrate Judge

Case No: 1:10-cv-00187-MP -GRJ