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Initial Status Conferences and Joint Initial Status Reports

The Court will set all newly-filed cases for an initial status hearing approximately 75 days after the filing of the complaint.  The initial status hearing will be the scheduling conference as required by Rule 16(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.  See Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b); see also Local Rule 16.1 (“the initial status hearing shall be the scheduling conference referred to in Fed. R. Civ. P. 16”).  The parties must meet and conduct a planning conference as required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(f). 

After conferring, the parties must submit two things to the Court.

First, the parties must file a Joint Initial Status Report, not to exceed seven pages, at least seven days before the initial status hearing.  The Joint Initial Status Report is the “discovery plan” required by Rule 26(f).  The Joint Initial Status Report shall provide the information listed in the template below. 

Joint Initial Status Report Under Rule 26(f)

If defense counsel has not yet filed an appearance, plaintiff’s counsel should prepare the status report.  The parties must deliver a copy of the Initial Status Report to the Courtroom Deputy’s drop-box outside room 2316A no later than one week before the initial status hearing.

Second, the parties must submit a Word version of a proposed scheduling order under Rule 16(b) to the Court’s proposed order mailbox, Proposed_Order_Seeger@ilnd.uscourts.gov. The template for the proposed scheduling order is here: Scheduling Order Under Rule 16(b). At that point, the Court will adopt or modify the proposed plan, as necessary.

Use the templates.  The parties simply need to fill in the blanks.

At the initial status hearing with the Court, the parties should be prepared to discuss the nature of the case, report on the possibility of settlement, and discuss the nature and length of discovery necessary to prepare the case for trial.  The Court may set a discovery cut-off date at the initial conference.

In some cases, the scheduled status conference may take place before a defendant has responded to the plaintiff’s complaint.  The Court expects all defendants who have been served with process to participate in this conference even if they have not yet responded to the complaint.



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