PAUL S. GREWAL, Magistrate Judge.
On March 11, 2014, the parties appeared before the court for a hearing on the two instant motions. Concerned about the sufficiency of the "meet and confer process" that had taken place, the court gave both parties the use of its jury room for a more extensive conversation. That conversation, however, lasted for less than half an hour and resulted in no additional agreements or compromises. Rather than hold up the law and motion calendar, the court informed the parties that it would instead issue a brief order resolving the outstanding disputes. This is that order.
On October 31, 2013, Plaintiff Effren Trejo served written discovery requests on Defendants Macy's Inc., FDS Bank, and Department Stores National Bank. On December 5, 2013, Trejo received responses, but they were primarily in the form of boilerplate objections. On December 20, 2013, Trejo sent Defendants a meet and confer letter. On January 14, 2014, Defendants "fully supplemented" their discovery responses, yet they only produced additional documents on January 24, 2014. On January 29-30, 2014, the parties engaged in further meet and confer sessions, resulting in Defendants' production of additional documents on February 3, 2014. On February 4, 2014, Trejo filed the instant motions to compel responses to select interrogatories and requests for production.
Although Defendants also committed to supplementing their interrogatory responses on March 4, 2014, at the hearing on March 11, the parties were unable to identify any issues that the alleged supplementation resolved. With the close of fact discovery fast approaching, the court now GRANTS the instant motions as to all but four of the contested issues.
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provide that a party "may obtain discovery regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any party's claim or defense."
When a party withholds information otherwise discoverable by claiming that the information is privileged, the party must describe the nature of the documents, communications, or tangible things not produced or disclosed — and do so in a manner that, without revealing information itself privileged or protected, will enable other parties to assess the claim.
The vast majority of the information sought by the interrogatories and requests for production at issue is plainly relevant to the litigation at hand. Trejo seeks the identity and contact information of individuals and entities that were or may have been involved in the attempt to collect his debt. Any of these may be relevant fact witnesses, such that Trejo is entitled to depose them. Trejo also seeks information about Defendants' financial status, which is relevant to his punitive damage claim. The only clear overreaches presented in these discovery requests are the requests for production that seek information about previous complaints and judgments against Defendants relating to the collection of debts or complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau between 2009 and now. Even if these requests were remotely likely to lead to the discovery of additional fact witnesses, as Trejo would have the court believe, in their present form, they are overbroad.
On those bases, the court now GRANTS Trejo's motions as to all interrogatories and requests for production except numbers 11 and 12 as to DSNB and 12 and 13 as to Macy's and FDS Bank. Defendants shall fully respond to Trejo's interrogatories and requests for production within seven days of this order. Any documents withheld on the basis of privilege shall be recorded in a privilege log, to be produced within fourteen days of this order.