Q: What are the potential consequences for not answering questions during the discovery process of a lawsuit?

A: It depends on the lawyer asking the discovery questions. however, one consequence could be sanctions imposed by a judge.

A: Here’s a citation to the Federal Rule. You might try casecite.com or Lexus.com or one of the other sources for the commentary. Fed. R. Civ. P. 37.

The Virginia rules are similar with significant procedural and substantive differences. You should follow your lawyer’s counsel on this and should not publish the details of why you don’t want to disclose in a public forum on the Internet.

A: Making a bad situation worse.

Not answering could result in you having to pay the other side's attorneys fees to ask the court to require you to respond. The court could prohibit you from introducing some evidence at the trial. If you piss the judge off enough, the court could rule against you in the case. If you're the plaintiff, that means your case would be dismissed and you get nothing.

A: At the same time that it is important for you to cooperate with discovery requests, as outlined with very good reasons provided here, it is also important as a general matter for your attorney to be vigilant for discovery requests that reach for information that is immaterial or irrelevant, where the opposing side might be exploring what they could "haul up," if they are not challenged when appropriate.

Tim Akpinar