How to File a Motion to Compel Discovery in Texas

To file a motion to compel discovery in Texas, you confirm the opposing party’s response deadline has passed, make a documented good-faith effort to resolve the dispute with opposing counsel, then file a written motion under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 215.1 through the eFileTexas system, attaching the discovery requests and responses at issue, a certificate of conference, and a proposed order. The court sets a hearing, and if the motion is granted the judge orders production and generally shifts your reasonable expenses onto the party who stonewalled.

First, Confirm the Response Is Actually Overdue

A motion filed before the responding party’s deadline runs is dead on arrival. The general rule: a party served with interrogatories or requests for production has 30 days to respond.¹² A defendant served with discovery before their answer is due gets 50 days instead. Check your service date, count the days, and only then move forward.

The discovery control plan governing your case also matters. Texas uses three levels — Level 1 for expedited actions and smaller divorces, Level 2 as the default for most civil cases, and Level 3 for court-managed complex litigation.³⁴ Confirm you’re inside the discovery period the plan allows before filing.

Grounds That Support a Motion to Compel

Rule 215.1(b) lists the situations where a motion to compel is available: the opposing party fails to answer interrogatories, ignores a request for production, refuses to appear for a deposition, declines to answer deposition questions, or fails as a corporate party to designate a representative to testify.⁵

An evasive or incomplete answer counts as no answer at all under Rule 215.1(c).⁵ Someone who answers an income interrogatory with “I earn a salary” has responded on paper and stonewalled in fact, and that gives you grounds to compel a real answer. Courts look at whether the response actually addresses the question.

Rule 215.1(b) also lets you skip the motion to compel entirely and seek sanctions under Rule 215.2(b) when a party completely ignores discovery.⁵ Most practitioners still file the motion to compel first because it builds a cleaner record for any later escalation.

The Certificate of Conference

Every discovery motion must include a certificate stating that you made a reasonable effort to resolve the dispute without court intervention and that the effort failed. That requirement comes from Rule 191.2.⁶ Without the certificate, most judges will not set your motion for a hearing.

A real effort means more than a single demand email. Pick up the phone or set a meeting, walk through the specific disputes, identify what can be resolved voluntarily, and narrow the issues that truly need a judge. Document the conversation. If opposing counsel refuses to engage or ignores repeated attempts, explain those circumstances in the certificate. Judges are forgiving when one side genuinely tried; they are skeptical of certificates that read like box-checking.

What the Motion Should Contain

A well-drafted motion walks the judge through the dispute one item at a time. For each contested request, set out the original request, the response or objection you received, and your argument for why the response falls short. This side-by-side format lets the judge evaluate quickly. Under the administrative rules governing discovery motions, include only the relevant portions of discovery materials rather than the whole file.⁷

Attach the full discovery requests and responses as exhibits so the factual record is in front of the judge. Prepare a proposed order the judge can sign. That proposed order should say exactly what the opposing party must produce and set a specific compliance deadline. Vague orders invite return trips to court. A concrete deadline, often 7 to 14 days depending on what the court decides, avoids ambiguity about when the clock runs out.

Filing, Notice, and the Hearing

Texas requires electronic filing for civil cases through the eFileTexas system at efiletexas.gov.⁸ The filing fee for a motion inside an existing civil case is $15.⁹ After filing, contact the court coordinator to schedule a hearing date and serve formal notice on opposing counsel.

At the hearing, both sides argue. If the court finds the resisting party’s objections lacked a legal basis, the motion is granted and that party is likely paying your attorney fees on top of producing the information. If the court denies the motion in whole or part, it can issue a protective order under Rule 192.6 limiting the discovery you sought.⁵

Fee Shifting Runs Both Ways

Rule 215.1(d) gives the motion real teeth. If the court grants your motion, it must order the non-compliant party or their attorney to pay your reasonable expenses in bringing the motion, including attorney fees.⁵ The rule uses “shall,” not “may.” The only escape is a finding that the opposition was substantially justified or that other circumstances make an expense award unjust.

The same rule works against you if the motion is denied. The judge may require you or your attorney to pay the other side’s costs of opposing it, subject to the same substantial-justification exception. When the motion is granted in part and denied in part, the court splits expenses in whatever proportion seems fair. Amounts awarded are calculated case by case, not against a fixed schedule.⁵ Filing a weak motion is expensive, so build the record before you pull the trigger.

If They Still Refuse After the Order

When a party defies an order compelling discovery, Rule 215.2 opens up a wider set of sanctions the court can impose:

Monetary penalties, including all discovery expenses and court costs charged to the disobedient party.
Evidentiary sanctions that treat disputed facts as established in your favor, prevent the other side from supporting certain claims or defenses, or bar them from introducing designated evidence.
Procedural sanctions prohibiting further discovery by the non-compliant party or staying the case until they comply.
Case-ending sanctions, including striking pleadings, dismissing the case, or entering a default judgment.
Contempt of court, except for failures related to physical or mental examinations.

On top of the sanction, the court must order the non-compliant party or their attorney to pay the reasonable expenses caused by the failure, including attorney fees, unless the failure was substantially justified.¹⁰ Courts generally step up the ladder rather than jumping to the top: monetary sanctions first, then evidentiary, then case-ending consequences reserved for flagrant bad faith after lesser measures have failed.¹¹

When a Motion to Compel Will Not Work

Some refusals to produce information are legitimate, and filing against them is how you end up paying the other side’s fees.

The Information Must Be Discoverable

Under Rule 192.3, a party can obtain discovery on any matter relevant to the subject matter of the pending action and not privileged. The information does not need to be admissible at trial, only reasonably calculated to lead to admissible evidence. Discoverable categories include documents, the identities and contact information of people with relevant knowledge, trial witness information, expert witness materials, insurance agreements, and settlement agreements. Consulting experts whose work has not been reviewed by a testifying expert are off limits.¹²

Objections Under Rule 193.2

Objections must be in writing, filed within the response deadline, and must state the specific legal or factual basis for refusing to comply.¹³ Stamping “Objection” on every request does not work. When a party objects to part of a request, they must still comply with the part they have not objected to.

The waiver rule is your friend when you’re on the receiving end of a wall of boilerplate: an objection not raised within the response deadline is waived, and so is an objection buried in a pile of unfounded boilerplate objections, unless the court finds good cause to excuse the waiver.¹³ Point this out in your motion.

Privilege Claims

A party withholding information under attorney-client, work product, or another recognized privilege must say so in the response, identify the request the withheld material relates to, and name the privilege claimed.¹⁴ You can then serve a written request for a privilege log, and the withholding party has 15 days to respond with descriptions detailed enough to evaluate whether the privilege actually applies. If the log looks questionable, you can ask the court for an in camera review, though the court is not required to grant it and you need a factual basis for the doubt.

Protective Orders

The responding party can also file a motion for a protective order under Rule 192.6. The court can limit the scope of discovery, change the timing or method of production, or seal the results to protect the movant from undue burden, unnecessary expense, harassment, or invasion of personal or property rights.¹⁵ The motion must be filed within the time allowed for responding to the discovery request, and a party seeking to change the time or place of production must propose a reasonable alternative and comply in the meantime unless doing so is unreasonable. If the response you received is a properly filed protective order motion rather than silence, wait for the court to rule before filing to compel.

1
South Texas College of Law Houston. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 197.2 – Response to Interrogatories
2
South Texas College of Law Houston. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 196 – Requests for Production and Inspection to Parties
3
South Texas College of Law Houston. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 190.2 – Discovery Control Plan – Expedited Actions and Divorces Involving $250,000 or Less (Level 1)
4
South Texas College of Law Houston. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 190.3 – Discovery Control Plan – By Rule (Level 2)
5
Texas Judicial Branch. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 215.1
6
South Texas College of Law Houston. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 191.2 – Conference
7
Legal Information Institute. 1 Tex. Admin. Code 155.259 – Discovery Motions
8
eFileTexas. eFile – Landing Page
9
Texas Judicial Branch. District Court Civil Filing Fees
10
South Texas College of Law Houston. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 215.2 – Failure to Comply with Order or with Discovery Request
11
CaseMine. TransAmerican Natural Gas Corp v Powell
12
Texas Judicial Branch. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 192.3
13
South Texas College of Law Houston. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 193 – Written Discovery: Response, Objection, Assertion of Privilege
14
South Texas College of Law Houston. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 193.3 – Asserting a Privilege
15
South Texas College of Law Houston. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 192.6 – Protective Orders