Hendrix v. Evenflo Company, Inc.

Full title: RHONDA HENDRIX, Plaintiff, v. EVENFLO COMPANY, INC., Defendant

Court: United States District Court, N.D. Florida, Pensacola Division

Date published: Jul 17, 2008

CASE NO.: 3:07cv133/MCR/EMT (N.D. Fla. Jul. 17, 2008)

Opinion

CASE NO.: 3:07cv133/MCR/EMT.

July 17, 2008

ORDER

M. RODGERS, Magistrate Judge

This cause is before the Court upon Defendant's Motion to Strike Plaintiff's Supplemental Expert Reports (doc. 245) to which Plaintiff has responded (doc. 259). The court has reviewed the expert opinions and reports provided by the parties and finds that while the supplemental reports of Plaintiff's experts do contain additional information based upon matters raised by Defendant's experts and other witnesses, their initial opinions are not substantially altered.¹ Defendant's motion to strike is denied; however, in an effort to avoid any prejudice to either party the court will re-open expert discovery for an additional thirty (30) days. Furthermore, in consideration of this final discovery extension, the court will continue the trial from it's current October trial docket. Accordingly, it is

1 This review included the supplemental reports of two of Defendant's experts which were apparently provided to Plaintiff less than three weeks prior to the close of discovery and approximately three months after Defendant's deadline for expert disclosure in which Defendant's experts' opinions on the cause of Autistic Spectrum Disorder was notably expanded.

ORDERED:

1. Defendant's Motion to Strike Plaintiff's Supplemental Expert Reports (doc. 245) is DENIED.

2. The period of expert discovery is re-opened for thirty (30) days. The parties shall complete all expert discovery and disclosures, including Rule 26(e) disclosures, on or by August 18, 2008. This deadline supercedes all prior expert disclosure deadlines imposed by this court and additionally supercedes all provisions for such disclosure deadlines as provided in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Local Rules of this court. No supplementation will be permitted beyond the August 18 deadline absent leave of court for good cause shown.

3. The deadline for filing Daubert and dispositive motions shall be August 25, 2008. Any and all responses thereto shall be due September 8, 2008.

4. The trial in this matter is continued to a special trial docket commencing January 19, 2009. The court has specifically reserved two weeks for the trial of this cause. Should either party have any information which would alter the anticipated length of trial as noted, they should advise the Courtimmediately.

5. The deadlines established herein are considered final and shall not be extended absent leave of court for extraordinary cause shown.

SO ORDERED.