Local Rule 16-10: Case Management Conference

16-10. Case Management Conference

(a) Initial Case Management Conference. Unless otherwise ordered, no later than the date specified in the Order Setting Initial Case Management Conference, the Court will conduct an initial Case Management Conference. Subject to 28 U.S.C. § 636, the assigned District Judge may designate a Magistrate Judge to conduct the initial Case Management Conference and other pretrial proceedings in the case. Unless excused by the Judge, lead trial counsel for each party must attend the initial Case Management Conference. Requests to participate in the conference remotely (e.g., telephonic or videoconference) must be filed and served at least 7 days before the conference or in accordance with the Standing Orders of the assigned Judge.

(b) Case Management Orders. After a Case Management Conference, the Judge will enter a Case Management Order or sign the Joint Case Management Statement and Proposed Order submitted by the parties. This order will comply with Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b) and will identify the principal issues in the case, establish deadlines for joining parties and amending pleadings, identify and set the date for filing any motions that should be considered early in the pretrial period, establish a disclosure and discovery plan, set appropriate limits on discovery, and refer the case to ADR unless such a referral would be inappropriate. In addition, in the initial Case Management Order or in any subsequent case management order, the Court may establish deadlines for: (1) Commencement and completion of any ADR proceedings; (2) Disclosure of proposed expert or other opinion witnesses pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(2), as well as supplementation of such disclosures; (3) Conclusion of pretrial discovery and disclosure; (4) Hearing pretrial motions; (5) Counsel to meet and confer to prepare joint final pretrial conference statement and proposed order and coordinated submission of trial exhibits and other material; (6) Filing joint final pretrial conference statement and proposed order; (7) Lodging exhibits and other trial material, including copies of all exhibits to be offered and all schedules, summaries, diagrams and charts to be used at the trial other than for impeachment or rebuttal. Each proposed exhibit must be premarked for identification. Upon request, a party must make the original or the underlying documents of any exhibit available for inspection and copying; (8) Serving and filing briefs on all significant disputed issues of law, including procedural and evidentiary issues; (9) In jury cases, serving and filing requested voir dire questions, jury instructions, and forms of verdict; or in court cases, serving and filing proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law; (10) Serving and filing statements designating excerpts from depositions (specifying the witness and page and line references), from interrogatory answers and from responses to requests for admission to be offered at the trial other than for impeachment or rebuttal; (11) A date by which parties objecting to receipt into evidence of any proposed testimony or exhibit must advise and confer with the opposing party with respect to resolving such objection; (12) A final pretrial conference and any necessary Court hearing to consider unresolved objections to proposed testimony or exhibits; (13) A trial date and schedule; (14) Determination of whether the case will be maintained as a class action; and (15) Any other activities appropriate in the management of the case, including use of procedures set forth in the Manual for Complex Litigation.

(c) Subsequent Case Management Conferences. Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 16, the assigned Judge or Magistrate Judge may, sua sponte or in response to a stipulated request or motion, schedule subsequent case management conferences during the pendency of an action. Each party must be represented at such subsequent case management conferences by counsel having authority with respect to matters under consideration.

(d) Subsequent Case Management Statements. Unless otherwise ordered, no fewer than 7 days before any subsequent case management conference, the parties must file a Joint Case Management Statement, reporting progress or changes since the last statement was filed and making proposals for the remainder of the case development process. Such statements must report the parties' views about whether using some form of ADR would be appropriate.