Opinion
1:22-cv-7780 (JLR)
09-30-2022
DEBRA C. VARGAS, Plaintiff, v. COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURITY, Defendant.
ORDER OF SERVICE AND SCHEDULING ORDER
JENNIFER L. ROCHON, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE:
The Clerk of Court shall notify the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York of the filing of this pro se case, brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), for which the filing fee has been waived. In accordance with this District's Standing Order governing pro se challenges to denials of social security benefits (see In re: Mots. J. Pleadings Social Sec. Cases, 16-MC-0171), the following briefing schedule applies:
• Within 90 days of service, the Commissioner must serve and file the Electronic Certified Administrative Record (e-CAR), which will constitute the Commissioner's answer, or otherwise move against the complaint.
• If the Commissioner wishes to file a motion for judgment on the pleadings, the Commissioner must do so within 60 days of the date on which the e-CAR was filed. The motion must contain a full recitation of the relevant facts and a full description of the underlying administrative proceeding.
• Plaintiff must file an answering brief within 60 days of the filing of the Commissioner's motion.
• The Commissioner may file a reply within 21 days thereafter.
• Generally, memoranda in support of or in opposition to any dispositive motion may not exceed 25 pages in length; reply memoranda may not exceed ten pages in length. A party seeking to exceed these page limitations must apply to the Court for leave to
do so, with copies to all counsel, no fewer than seven days before the date on which the memorandum is due.
In addition, by separate Order today, the Court is referring this case to the assigned Magistrate Judge for a report and recommendation on any motion for judgment on the pleadings. Magistrate Judges are judges selected by the District Judges to serve for terms of eight years. Magistrate Judges are highly qualified and very experienced.
To conserve resources, to promote judicial efficiency, and in an effort to achieve a faster disposition of this matter, it is hereby ORDERED that the parties must discuss whether they are willing to consent, under 28 U.S.C. § 636(c), to conducting all further proceedings before the assigned Magistrate Judge. If the parties consent to having the Magistrate Judge decide the case, the Magistrate Judge replaces the District Judge, thereby speeding up the resolution of the case (because only one judge instead of two will be involved in the case). Any appeal from a Magistrate Judge's decision following consent is directly to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in the same way that an appeal from a District Judge's decision would be taken. By contrast, if the parties do not consent to having the Magistrate Judge decide the case, the Magistrate Judge will first issue a Report and Recommendation, and the District Judge will then consider any objections either party has to the Report and Recommendation before a final judgment is entered, at which point an appeal to the Second Circuit could be taken.
If both parties consent to proceed before the Magistrate Judge, counsel for Defendant must, within two weeks of the date on which Defendant enters an appearance, file on ECF a fully executed Notice, Consent, and Reference of a Civil Action to a Magistrate Judge form, a copy of which is attached to this Order (and also available at https://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/node/754). If the Court approves that form, all further proceedings will then be conducted before the assigned Magistrate Judge rather than before the undersigned. An information sheet on proceedings before magistrate judges is also attached to this Order.
If you do not consent to having the Magistrate Judge decide your case, there will be no adverse consequences. If either party does not consent to conducting all further proceedings before the assigned Magistrate Judge, the parties must file a joint letter, within two weeks of the date on which Defendant enters an appearance advising the Court that the parties do not consent, but without disclosing the identity of the party or parties who do not consent.
The Clerk of the Court is directed to mail a copy of this Order to Plaintiff.
SO ORDERED.