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petitioner had not yet responded to respondent’s proposed
supplemental stipulation of facts or to informal requests for
information and documents. Respondent represented that only
slight progress had been made in preparing this case for trial
since the May 15, 2000, calendar call.
On August 8, 2000, petitioner served requests for admissions
and interrogatories on respondent. Petitioner failed to seek
informal discovery from respondent prior to initiating formal
discovery. See Rules 70(a)(1), 90(a); Branerton Corp. v.
Commissioner, 61 T.C. 691, 692 (1974).3 As a result, respondent
filed a motion for protective order pursuant to Rule 103(a)(2).
The Court denied that motion as moot because of subsequent
events.
In a telephone conference call held to resolve discovery
issues on August 23, 2000, the Court again ordered petitioner to
produce to respondent, on or before September 14, 2000, all
documents and records organized by year and category of expense
with the self-executing sanction that any documents or records
not produced by that date would not be allowed into evidence at
the trial scheduled to begin on October 25, 2000.
3 Requiring that parties make reasonable informal efforts
to obtain needed information voluntarily before resorting to
formal discovery.
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