Opinion
2:22-cv-02087-JCM-NJK
04-19-2023
D DAVID PERSI, Plaintiff(s), v. MGM GRAND HOTEL, LLC, Defendant(s).
ORDER
Nancy J. Koppe, United States Magistrate Judge.
This case arises out of MGM's COVID-19 vaccination requirement and Plaintiff's subsequent termination pursuant to that policy. See Docket No. 1 at ¶¶ 10-34. In the parties' discovery plan, they identify a number of cases that appear to arise under the same circumstances. See Docket No. 22 at 2. To that end, the parties are seeking coordination among the various cases for discovery purposes. See Id. Nonetheless, the parties have not filed notices of related cases in each of the subject cases as required by Local Rule 42-1(a).
Notices of related cases must be filed when, inter alia, the various “actions involve similar questions of fact and the same question of law, and their assignment to the same district judge or magistrate judge is likely to effect a substantial savings of judicial effort.” Local Rule 42-1(a)(3).
Clearly notifying the Court of the relatedness of cases enables the assigned judges to determine whether the cases should have parallel judicial assignments to further the goal of judicial) efficiency. See Local Rule 42-1(a)(3), (5). In the context of employment cases with early neutral evaluations (“ENEs”), promptly filing a notice of related cases serves the additional and important i goal of ensuring that a magistrate judge privy to confidential information from an ENE in one case is not assigned as the magistrate judge for general purposes in another case in which that same information could be pertinent.
Given this potential exposure to confidential information or litigation strategy, the ENE program is designed such that the magistrate judge overseeing the ENE is not generally involved in the case thereafter.
Accordingly, the parties must file, no later than April 26, 2023, either a notice of related cases in each of the subject cases in compliance with Local Rule 42-1(a) or a notice explaining why the cases should not be considered related.
IT IS SO ORDERED.