Free Motion for Extension of Time to Complete Discovery - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:06-cv-00146-TCW

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Filed 03/21/2007

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS TETRA TECH EC, INC. Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

No. 06-146C (Judge Wheeler)

DEFENDANT'S UNOPPOSED MOTION TO MODIFY SCHEDULING ORDER Defendant, the United States, respectfully requests that the Court modify the August 10, 2006 scheduling order, to enlarge the period provided for conducting fact discovery by 30 days, from March 30, 2007, to April 30, 2007. Defendant proposes to leave in place the April 4, 2007 deadline for a joint status report. This is defendant's first request for an enlargement of time for this purpose. Counsel for plaintiff, Tetra Tech EC, Inc., has informed us that plaintiff does not oppose this motion. This request is being made in order to provide the parties additional time in which to discuss settlement. On March 8, 2007, counsel held a settlement meeting in which plaintiff made an offer of settlement. Counsel for defendant has transmitted the offer to the interested agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, for analysis and a recommendation. The Government does not anticipate being able to respond to the settlement offer prior to the currently scheduled discovery deadline of March 30. Some of the agency employees who are expected to provide analysis and comment are on leave during the week of March 19-23, which is spring break in their public school system. The parties have proceeded diligently with discovery, have produced thousands of pages of documents, and have completed several depositions. However, additional depositions need to

Case 1:06-cv-00146-TCW

Document 13

Filed 03/21/2007

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be taken before discovery is complete. In addition, on March 20, 2007, plaintiff's counsel sent a letter to defense counsel requesting that additional documents be produced in response to previous requests for production. The parties do not intend to issue new interrogatories, requests for production, or written requests for admission. In order to conserve the parties' resources, we request this enlargement of time so that the parties may defer the completion of discovery until after a decision has been made regarding settlement. Moreover, counsel for the Government is scheduled for bid protest duty from April 2 through April 13, and, accordingly, will not be able to travel for depositions during that time. Thus, we anticipate that should this motion be granted and the case does not settle, the parties would complete discovery during the last two weeks of April. CONCLUSION For the foregoing reasons, we respectfully request that the Court grant our motion to modify the scheduling order and enlarge the period for fact discovery by 30 days, to and including April 30, 2007. PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General DAVID M. COHEN Director s/ Steven J. Gillingham by s/ Martin F. Hockey, Jr. STEVEN J. GILLINGHAM Assistant Director

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Case 1:06-cv-00146-TCW

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Filed 03/21/2007

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s/ Roger A. Hipp ROGER A. HIPP Trial Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division U.S. Department of Justice Attn: Classification Unit 8th Floor 1100 L Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 Tele: (202) 307-0277 Fax: (202) 307-0972 March 21, 2007 Attorneys for Defendant

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Case 1:06-cv-00146-TCW

Document 13

Filed 03/21/2007

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that on this 21st day of March, 2007, a copy of the foregoing DEFENDANT'S UNOPPOSED MOTION FOR AN ENLARGEMENT OF TIME was filed electronically. I understand that notice of this filing will be sent to all parties of record by operation of the Court's electronic filing system. Parties may access this filing through the Court's system.

s/ Roger A. Hipp

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