Opinion
Case No. 3:10-cv-02679-BZ
11-16-2011
CAREER SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION Plaintiff, v. AMERICAN HOME ASSURANCE COMPANY, a corporation, DOES 1 through 100 Defendant
Michael A. Mathews # 049625 Law Offices of Michael A. Mathews Attorney for Plaintiff Career Systems Development Corp.
Michael A. Mathews # 049625
Law Offices of Michael A. Mathews
Attorney for Plaintiff Career Systems Development Corp.
JOINT MOTION TO EXTEND EXPERT DISCLOSURE DATES AND DISCOVERY CUT-OFF DATES
Courtroom: G
Judge: Hon. Bernard Zimmerman
Trial Date: April 30, 2012
The parties herein jointly request that certain cut-off dates ordered in the court's Order Scheduling Jury Trial and Pretrial Matters of November 2, 2011 be modified. These requested changes do not affect the current cut-off dates for the hearing of dispositive motions, pretrial conference or trial. Specifically, the parties request that
1) the expert disclosure date be extended from its present December 16, 2011 to December 23, 2011. If the present date is maintained the parties will have to incur substantial expert witness fee costs starting immediately, which will make the case far more difficult to settle. It will also require that nonexpert discovery and expert preparation proceed simultaneously on very tight time schedules, severely burdening the parties;
2) the rebuttal expert disclosure date be extended from its present January 6, 2012 to January 16, 2012;
3) the close of expert discovery date be extended from its present January 20, 2012 to January 27, 2012;
4) the nonexpert discovery cutoff date be extended from its present December 9, 2011 to December 16, 2011.
If the court wishes to extend the date by which dispositive motions must be heard neither party objects.
This is an action for insurance coverage and bad faith turning upon whether Defendant had a duty to defend certain lawsuits that had been brought against Plaintiff, a question of law. As the court notes in its opinion on order on summary judgment, it was understood by the parties and court at the status conference held in February that discovery on the bad faith issues would be put on hold pending the court's ruling on the parties' cross motions for summary judgment on the duty to defend. For this reason the case is in a largely undiscovered posture. At the trial setting conference held on November 1, 2011 the court indicated that it would order that trial commence on April 30, 2012, to which neither party objects, but the disclosure and cut-off dates at issue here were not made known to the parties until receipt of the court's November 2 written order. The parties had not anticipated expert disclosure and discovery cutoff dates anywhere near so short. Since Rule 26 requires that expert disclosures be accompanied by a statement of the full opinions and conclusions of the expert, and because no expert had been retained as of the time of the scheduling order, this means, for plaintiff particularly, that preparing the expert must begin immediately, before settlement can be meaningfully explored, as the expert must immediately familiarize himself with the relevant facts (two large claims files worth) and law of the case, and some of the facts will only have been discovered via deposition as late as December 9, just seven days before his report is due. This is very burdensome on the parties, especially Plaintiff, whose attorney is a sole practitioner. And the rapidly mounting discovery and expert costs will harm the prospects for settlement.
For these reasons both parties respectfully request that the dates assigned be extended as set out above.
LAW OFFICES OF MICHAEL A. MATHEWS
Michael A. Mathews
Attorney for CAREER SYSTEMS
DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION