Local Rule Rule 26: Discovery

RULE 26 DISCOVERY

(a) Filing of Discovery.

Unless otherwise ordered by the court, depositions upon oral examination and interrogatories, requests for documents, requests for admissions, answers and responses and disclosures made under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a) (1)-(3) or pursuant to scheduling orders, shall be served upon other parties but shall not be filed with the court. The party that has served notices of depositions or has served discovery papers shall be responsible for preserving and for insuring the integrity of original transcripts and discovery papers for use by the court.

(b) Discovery Disputes.

A judicial officer shall not consider any discovery motion that is not accompanied by a certification that the moving party has made a reasonable and good-faith effort to reach an agreement with opposing counsel on the matters set forth in the motion. An attempt to confer will not suffice.

After efforts to resolve the dispute have been exhausted, any dispute not resolved shall be presented to the judicial officer by motion. If the parties are unable to resolve the dispute and the discovery deadline is about to expire, or if the dispute arises during the taking of a deposition, the dispute may be promptly presented to a judicial officer by telephone. In those cases, the judicial officer shall resolve the dispute by telephone or order the parties to submit the matter by motion.

Unless otherwise ordered by the court, the complete discovery materials shall not be filed with the court unless the discovery dispute cannot be decided without reference to the complete discovery materials.