Discovery Motions:

The Court believes that parties can and should work out most discovery disputes and thus discourages the filing of discovery motions.  The Court will not hear or consider any discovery motion or non-dispositive dispute unless the movant has complied with the "meet and confer" requirement of Local Rule 37.2. The motion must state with specificity when and how the movant complied with Local Rule 37.2. Parties are reminded that compliance with Local Rule 37.2 requires a good faith effort to resolve discovery disputes and communication that takes place face to face or by telephone. The exchange of correspondence will not normally be sufficient to comply with Local Rule 37.2.

All parties should be fully prepared to argue any discovery motion on the date that it is presented. The Court most often will rule on discovery motions after hearing argument at the motion call and without briefing.  If after hearing argument, the Court believes that the motion requires briefing, the Court normally will set an expedited briefing schedule so that the matter can be resolved promptly.

Parties are reminded to immediately notify the Court if they are withdrawing any previously filed discovery motions.

Parties are reminded that there is no "order" in which discovery must occur, and that one party's failure or inability to respond to discovery will not excuse any other party's prompt compliance. Parties are also reminded that the pendency of a motion, such as a motion to dismiss, does not operate as a stay of discovery absent explicit order of the Court.

Boilerplate Language:

Boilerplate "instructions" shall not be used in interrogatories and document requests. These unduly detailed instructions rarely accomplish anything useful and serve merely to add unnecessarily to the cost of litigation, especially where they give rise to disputes. Interrogatories and document requests should be framed with clarity, so that no instructions are necessary. In the exceptional case where instructions might be necessary, they should be concise and specific to the problem presented by the particular interrogatory. Boilerplate instructions may be regarded as surplusage and need not be considered in responding to the interrogatories or document requests.

E-Discovery:

If the parties have reached an impasse regarding the discovery of voluminous records from a database, server, computer, service provider or similar electronic storage facility (ESF), before filing a motion to compel, the parties are required to meet and confer with an IT representative of the ESF to be searched in order to determine the most effective way to retrieve the requested material. The party seeking the discovery should also bring its IT specialist to this meeting in order to discuss the proper format for the retrieval of the records. This electronic discovery conference must take place in person and both sides should be prepared to discuss specifically the parameters of both the search and the ESF.