Free Motion to Amend Schedule - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:05-cv-00608-ECH

Document 43

Filed 12/21/2006

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS FRANCISCO JAVIER RIVERA AGREDANO, Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

No. 05-608C (Judge Hewitt)

JOINT MOTION TO AMEND THE SCHEDULING ORDER Pursuant to Rule 6.1 of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims, the parties, jointly, respectfully request the Court to amend the current discovery scheduling order to enlarge by 49 days, to and including February 9, 2007, the time to complete the scheduled discovery and to amend the interim dates as indicated below. On July 10, 2006, the Court issued a discovery scheduling order, which provided that the scheduled discovery was to be completed by December 22, 2006. On October 30, 2006, the Court issued a supplemental scheduling order, which set a filing deadline of January 25, 2007 as the deadline for filing any dispositive motions in this case. This is the parties' first request to amend the discovery scheduling order. The current scheduling orders provide, in relevant part, as follows: 1. Discovery, including depositions of experts, shall close on December 22, 2006. The parties shall file a joint status report no or before January 5, 2007. Any dispositive motions shall be filed no later than January 25, 2007.

2. 3.

For the reasons expressed more fully below, the parties request the Court to amend the schedule to provide as follows: 1. Discovery, including depositions of experts, shall close on February 9, 2007.

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2.

The parties shall file a joint status report on or before February 23, 2007.

This request is necessary because, as a result of various factors, the parties will be unable to complete their planned discovery by the current deadlines. Since the Court's October 30, 2006 order supplementing the scheduling order, the parties have been diligently pursuing discovery matters. They have taken several depositions, and have exchanged written discovery requests. They have been and are currently working to schedule the remainder of the depositions for this case, and anticipate that all depositions will be completed during January 2007. There are also some outstanding discovery requests from both parties that require responses. Despite the parties' efforts to conclude discovery in accordance with the Court's original scheduling order, it has become apparent that they will not be able to do so. Schedule conflicts for some witnesses have prevented the parties from taking approximately four depositions, although it appears that they will be able to complete those depositions during January 2007. The parties also require additional time to ensure that all the documents that were produced while this case was pending in the Southern District of California, prior to its transfer to this Court, are in the possession of counsel for the defendant. The parties have also found it necessary to pursue additional, mostly follow-up, written discovery requests. The response times for those requests have increased, as we have now entered the end-of-the-year holiday and use-or lose leave season, and many persons needed to provide responses are increasingly unavailable until after the end of the year. Finally, the parties have been engaging in settlement discussions as discovery has proceeded, and these discussions have created additional work that was not contemplated when the parties agreed to the original schedule. The parties believe that the amended schedule that they have proposed will facilitate a more efficient process for completing discovery in this case that will both benefit the parties and 2

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conserve scarce judicial resources. CONCLUSION For these reasons, the parties, jointly, respectfully request the Court to amend the scheduling order to provide as follows: 1. Discovery, including depositions of experts, shall close on February 9, 2007. The parties shall file a joint status report on or before February 23, 2007. Respectfully submitted, PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General DAVID M. COHEN Director s/ Patricia M. McCarthy PATRICIA M. McCARTHY Assistant Director s/ Teresa Trucchi TERESA TRUCCHI Suppa, Trucchi & Henein LLP 3055 India Street San Diego, CA 92117 Tel. (619) 252-1683 Fax. (619) 297-7330 Attorney for the Plaintiff s/ Devin A. Wolak DEVIN A. WOLAK Trial Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Department of Justice 1100 L Street, N.W. Attn: Classification Unit 8th Floor Washington, DC 20530 Tel. (202) 616-0170 Fax. (202) 514-8624 Attorneys for Defendant

2.

December 21, 2006

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CERTIFICATE OF FILING I hereby certify that on December 21, 2006, a copy of the foregoing "JOINT MOTION TO AMEND SCHEDULING ORDER" was filed electronically. I understand that notice of this filing will be sent to all parties by operation of the Court's electronic filing system. The parties may access this filing through the Court's system.

s/ Devin A. Wolak DEVIN A. WOLAK

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