Bettys v. State of Washington

[3] 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 5 AT TACOMA [6] JOHN EDWARD BETTYS, Case No. 3:23-cv-05838-BJR-TLF 7 Plaintiff, v. PRETRIAL SCHEDULING ORDER [8] STATE OF WASHINGTON, et al., [9] Defendants. [10] 11 This is a civil rights action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 . Defendants 12 have now filed an answer to Plaintiff’s Complaint. Accordingly, the Court hereby 13 establishes the following pretrial schedule: 14 (1) Discovery 15 All discovery shall be completed by June 20, 2024. Service of responses to 16 interrogatories and to requests to produce, and the taking of depositions, shall be 17 completed by this date. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 33(a) requires answers or 18 objections to be served within thirty (30) days after service of the interrogatories. The 19 serving party, therefore, must serve his/her discovery requests at least thirty (30) days 20 before the deadline in order to allow the other party time to answer. Discovery requests 21 must be served directly on the opposing party’s counsel by mail. [24] 1 (2) Motion to Compel to Discovery 2 Any motion to compel discovery shall be filed not later than July 5, 2024. Before 3 filing a discovery motion, the parties must confer and attempt to resolve their differences. 4 A good faith effort to confer with a party or person not making a disclosure or discovery 5 requires a face-to-face meeting or a telephone conference. If unable to resolve their 6 differences, the party filing the discovery motion must, either within the motion to compel 7 or in a separate affidavit attached to the motion to compel, list the date, manner, and 8 participants to the conference. If the moving party fails to include such a certification, the 9 court may deny the motion without addressing the merits of the dispute. See Fed. R. Civ. 10 P. 37 and LCR 37(a)(1). 11 The motion to compel must: (1) list the matters on which the parties were unable to 12 agree; (2) identify the nature and relevance of the documents and materials sought; and, 13 (3) explain why the discovery sought is proportional to the needs of the case, considering 14 the importance of the issues at stake in the action, the amount in controversy, the parties’ 15 relative access to relevant information, the parties’ resources, the importance of the 16 discovery in resolving the issues, and whether the burden or expense of the proposed 17 discovery outweighs its likely benefit. 18 (3) Dispositive Motions 19 Any dispositive motion shall be filed and served by July 22, 2024. Pursuant to 20 LCR 7 (b), any argument being offered in support of a motion shall be submitted as a part 21 of the motion itself and not in a separate document. The motion shall include in its 22 caption (immediately below the title of the motion) a designation of the date the motion is 23 to be noted for consideration upon the Court’s motion calendar. Dispositive motions shall [24] 1 be noted for consideration on a date no earlier than the fourth Friday following filing and 2 service of the motion. 3 All briefs and affidavits in opposition to any motion shall be filed and served 4 pursuant to the requirements of Rule 7 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and LCR 5 7. The party making a motion may file and serve a reply to the opposing party’s briefs 6 and affidavits. Any reply brief shall also be filed and served pursuant to the requirements 7 of Rule 7 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and LCR 7. 8 Defendants are reminded that they MUST serve a Rand notice, in a separate 9 document, concurrently with motions to dismiss and motions for summary judgment so 10 that pro se plaintiffs will have fair, timely and adequate notice of what is required of them 11 in order to oppose those motions. Woods v. Carey, 684 F.3d 934, 941 (9th Cir. 2012). 12 The Ninth Circuit has set forth model language for such notices: 13 A motion for summary judgment under Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure will, if granted, end your case. [14] Rule 56 tells you what you must do in order to oppose a motion for summary 15 judgment. Generally, summary judgment must be granted when there is no genuine issue of material fact – that is, if there is no real dispute about any 16 fact that would affect the result of your case, the party who asked for summary judgment is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, which will end 17 your case. When a party you are suing makes a motion for summary judgment that is properly supported by declarations (or other sworn 18 testimony), you cannot simply rely on what your complaint says. Instead, you must set out specific facts in declarations, depositions, answers to 19 interrogatories, or authenticated documents, as provided in Rule 56(e), that contradict the facts shown in the defendant’s declarations and 20 documents and show that there is a genuine issue of material fact for trial. If you do not submit your own evidence in opposition, summary 21 judgment, if appropriate, may be entered against you. If summary judgment is granted, your case will be dismissed and there will be no 22 trial. [24] 1 Rand v. Rowland, 154 F.3d 952, 963 (9th Cir. 1998) (emphasis added). Defendants who 2 fail to file and serve the required Rand notice on the plaintiff(s) may have their motion 3 stricken from the Court’s calendar with leave to re-file. 4 (4) Trial, Joint Pretrial Statement, and Expert Disclosures 5 A trial date and deadlines for serving expert disclosures and filing a Joint Pretrial 6 Statement may be established at a later date pending the outcome of any dispositive 7 motions. 8 (5) Proof of Service and Sanctions 9 All motions, pretrial statements, and other filings shall be accompanied by proof 10 that such documents have been served upon counsel for the opposing party or upon any 11 party acting pro se. The proof of service shall show the day and manner of service and 12 may be by written acknowledgment of service, by certificate of a member of the bar of this 13 Court, by affidavit of the person who served the papers, or by any other proof satisfactory 14 to the Court. Prisoners subject to the Court’s Mandatory E-Filing Project may comply with 15 this requirement by certifying as to the date the document(s) is handed to the law librarian 16 for scanning. Failure to comply with the provisions of the Order can result in 17 dismissal/default judgment or other appropriate sanctions. 18 (6) Extensions 19 The deadlines contained in this Order are firm and will not be extended by the 20 Court except upon application to the Court with a showing of good cause. 21 (7) Address 22 The parties are to promptly update the Court with any change of address or other 23 contact information. [1] 2 (8) Instructions to Clerk 3 The Clerk of Court is directed to send a copy of this Order to plaintiff and to 4 counsel for defendants. 5 Dated this 20th day of February, 2024. [7] A [8] Theresa L. Fricke 9 United States Magistrate Judge