Free Joint Status Report - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:02-cv-00024-FMA

Document 120

Filed 05/15/2007

Page 1 of 3

UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS ____________________________________ PUEBLO OF LAGUNA, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) ) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) ) Defendant. ) ____________________________________)

No. 02-24L Judge Francis M. Allegra

JOINT STATUS REPORT Plaintiff, the Pueblo of Laguna, and Defendant, the United States, (the "parties"), respectfully submit this Joint Status Report to the Court regarding the parties' progress on document production and indexation issues since their last joint status report filed on February 12, 2007. I. INDEXATION PLAN STATUS AND DOCUMENT PRODUCTION As reported to the Court in the parties' earlier joint status reports, focus has been placed on document production, coding, and indexation issues primarily related to Jicarilla v. United States, Docket No. 2-25L. The parties agreed to set aside Pueblo of Laguna document production and indexation to focus first on completing document inventorying, production, and indexation for Jicarilla. This includes two significant, discrete segments of claims at issue in the context of the Jicarilla ADR. Subsequent to the document collection in the Jicarilla ADR, the parties intend to turn to the collection and production of documents related to the issues in this case. As the parties' experts in Jicarilla devote an increasing amount of time to the analysis and evaluation of documents that have been gathered and produced to date in Jicarilla, counsel are optimistic that they will be able to engage in discussions regarding document production in this case, utilizing the lessons learned in

Case 1:02-cv-00024-FMA

Document 120

Filed 05/15/2007

Page 2 of 3

the Jicarilla litigation in the context of document identification and location, coding, and document inventorying and production. As previously reported to the Court, Plaintiff has been developing a plan for the timeintensive process of collecting documents from various Pueblo repositories. Plaintiff met with tribal officials on February 13, 2007 and March 20, 2007 and discussed, in part, document retrieval issues. Plaintiff will remain in communication with Defendant as the meetings progress. As reported in the parties' recent status report, Plaintiff anticipates that retrieval, scanning, and coding of Pueblo of Laguna documents may get underway as the parties proceed with the latter stages of the Jicarilla ADR production. As noted above, the parties' indexation and document production efforts in the Jicarilla case will undoubtedly place the parties in a good position once they begin to address document production and indexation issues in this case. Counsel remain optimistic that they will be able to work cooperatively as they have in the Jicarilla case to resolve document production and indexation issues as they arise in this case, further assisted by the protocols already established in the Jicarilla case. The parties will of course bring any unresolved issues to the attention of the Court. II. ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION The parties continue to make steady progress in the Jicarilla ADR. At the appropriate time when the parties turn to issues in this case in ADR, the parties will benefit greatly from the experience gained in the Jicarilla ADR. The parties shall report further to the Court on these matters of indexation and production of documents on or before August 14, 2007 unless the Court orders otherwise or unless intervening events warrant an earlier report.

2

Case 1:02-cv-00024-FMA

Document 120

Filed 05/15/2007

Page 3 of 3

Respectfully submitted this 15th day of May, 2007.

/s Alan R. Taradash by /s Donald H. Grove Alan R. Taradash Nordhaus Law Firm, LLP 405 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. NE Albuquerque, NM 87102-3541 telephone: 505-243-4275 facsimile: 505-243-4464

/s Robert W. Rodrigues by /s Donald H. Grove Robert W. Rodrigues U.S. Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division Natural Resources Section P.O. Box 663 Washington, DC 20044-0663 telephone: 202-305-0484 facsimile: 202-305-0506 Attorney of Record for Defendant

Attorney of Record for Plaintiff

Thomas J. Peckham Daniel I.S.J. Rey-Bear Deidre A. Lujan Nordhaus Law Firm, LLP 405 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Ave NE Albuquerque, NM 87102 telephone 505-243-4275 Of Counsel

Martin J. LaLonde Laura Maroldy E. Kenneth Stegeby U.S. Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division Natural Resources Section P.O. Box 663 Washington, DC 20044-0663

Donald H. Grove Nordhaus Law Firm, LLP Suite 801 1401 K Street NW Washington, DC 20005 telephone 202-530-1270 Of Counsel

3