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

Case 1:05-cv-00370-CFL

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Filed 12/21/2006

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS ALI JAZMIN RODRIGUEZ, Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

Electronic Filing No. 05-370C (Judge Lettow)

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 42 days, to and including February 9, 2007, the time to complete the scheduled fact discovery. On May 31, 2006, the Court issued a discovery scheduling order, which provided, among other things, that the scheduled fact discovery was to be completed by December 29, 2006. This is the parties' first request for an amendment to the scheduling order. This request is necessary because, as a result of various factors, the parties will be unable to complete their planned fact discovery by the current deadline. The parties have been diligently pursuing discovery matters in this case, and have been coordinating their efforts between this case and the similar case of Francisco Javier Rivera Agredano v. United States, No. 05-608, to make discovery in both cases more efficient. They have taken several depositions and have exchanged written discovery requests and responses. The parties have been and are currently working to schedule the remainder of the depositions for this case and the Rivera case, and they 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 fact discovery in accordance with the Court's

Case 1:05-cv-00370-CFL

Document 43

Filed 12/21/2006

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original scheduling order, it has become apparent that we 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. Additionally, many of the documents produced in the Rivera case are applicable to this case, but those documents were produced before that case was transferred to the Court of Federal Claims, and the task retrieving all the documents from the United States Attorney's office (which handled both the Rivera case and this case prior to the transfers) and ensuring that they have been properly designated for use in this case has taken the parties longer than they anticipated when they agreed to the original fact discovery deadline of December 29, 2006. 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 endof-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. The parties have been engaging in settlement discussions as discovery has proceeded, and these discussions have created additional work that was not contemplated when they agreed to the original schedule. Finally, the parties are submitting a similar motion seeking an extension of fact discovery in the Rivera case. 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 conserve scarce judicial resources. CONCLUSION For these reasons, the parties, jointly, respectfully request the Court to amend the scheduling order to provide that fact discovery shall close on February 9, 2007. The parties do not request any other amendments to the scheduling order. 2

Case 1:05-cv-00370-CFL

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Filed 12/21/2006

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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

December 21, 2006

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Case 1:05-cv-00370-CFL

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Filed 12/21/2006

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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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