Local Rule 26.2: SEQUENCES OF DISCOVERY
D. Mass. — Civil rule
RULE 26.2 SEQUENCES OF DISCOVERY
(a) Automatic Required Disclosure. Unless otherwise ordered by the judicial officer, the disclosure required by Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(1) should be made as soon as practicable and in any event must be made at or within 14 days after the meeting required by Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(f) and L.R. 16.1(b). Except as provided in Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(d)(2), and unless otherwise ordered by the judicial officer, a party must provide to other parties disclosure of the information and materials called for by Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(1) before that party may initiate discovery.
(b) Further Discovery. Should a party exhaust the opportunities for any type of discovery events under L.R. 26.1(c), any requests that such party may make for additional interrogatories, depositions, admissions or the production of documents beyond that allowed pursuant to L.R. 26.1(c) shall be by discovery motion. All requests for additional discovery events, extensions of deadlines, for the completion of discovery or for postponement of the trial must be signed by the attorney and the party making the request.
(c) Certification of Discovery Motions. The judicial officer shall not consider any discovery motion that is not accompanied by a certification, as required by L.R. 7.1(a)(2) and L.R. 37.1(b), that the moving party has made a reasonable and good faith effort to reach agreement with opposing counsel on the matters set forth in the motion. In evaluating any discovery motion, the judicial officer may consider the desirability of conducting phased discovery, as contemplated by L.R. 26.3.
(d) Removed and Transferred Actions. In all actions removed to this court or transferred to this court from another federal court, the submission required by subsection (a) shall be made as prescribed in that subsection, and if discovery was initiated before the action being removed or transferred to this court, then the submission required by subsection (a) shall be made within 21 days of the date of removal or transfer.
Adopted effective October 1, 1992; amended effective January 2, 1995; December 10, 1996; December 4, 2000; December 1, 2009.