Opinion
19-cv-6228 (AJN)
07-18-2021
Tarax Tarax, et al., Plaintiff, v. Blossom West Inc., et al., Defendant.
ORDER
ALISON J. NATHAN, District Judge:
On April 29, 2021, the Court set a tentative date for a jury trial in this matter for October 4, 2021. That tentative date is now rescheduled to November 8, 2021.
The Southern District of New York has reconfigured courtrooms and other spaces in its courthouses to allow civil jury trials to proceed as safely as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the centralized calendaring system currently in place, the Clerk's Office schedules up to three jury trials to begin on each day of jury selection: a primary case and up to two back-up cases that may proceed in its place if the primary case does not go forward.
Though the Court will make every effort to try the case at the currently scheduled date, it cannot guarantee that a jury trial in this matter will be able to proceed as scheduled.
Accordingly, the parties are hereby ORDERED to meet and confer and submit a joint letter by August 1, 2021, responding to the following questions:
1. In the event that this case proceeds to trial, do all parties consent to a bench trial before this Court? If either party does not consent to a bench trial, the parties shall advise the Court that they do not consent, but without disclosing the identity of the party or parties who do not consent. The parties are free to withhold consent without negative consequences.
2. If the parties instead elect to proceed with a jury trial, are they prepared to proceed to trial on the scheduled date of November 8, 2021?
If the parties do not consent to a bench trial and indicate that they are ready to proceed with a jury trial on the scheduled date, the Court will request a jury for that date, consistent with the protocols implemented by the Southern District. In that event, the parties shall be prepared to proceed to trial as of that date and on each following week through December 2021. The Court will provide the parties as much notice as possible about whether their case will proceed to trial during any of those weeks.
The Court previously entered a schedule for the submission of joint pretrial materials and a final pretrial conference. Dkt. No. 70. Those deadlines are unaffected by this Order.
SO ORDERED.