The Court believes that parties can and should work out most discovery disputes and thus discourages the filing of discovery motions or motions to compel, which add extra time and costs for both parties. The Court will not consider any discovery motion unless the movant has complied with the meet-and-confer requirement of Local Rule 37.2. This applies not only to motions to compel, but also to motions to quash discovery or for protective orders re discovery. The motion must state with specificity when and how the movant complied with Local Rule 37.2. Remember that compliance with Local Rule 37.2 requires a good-faith effort to resolve discovery disputes and also requires that the conferral take place face-to-face, by telephone, or by video.  The exchange of emails or other correspondence will almost never be sufficient to comply with Local Rule 37.2.

A meet and confer is not in good faith if a party merely sticks to its original position or refuses to consider a compromise or a narrowed approach.  Parties are expected to meet and confer within two business days of any request to meet and confer on a subject, absent good cause for delay; a failure to do so may be deemed a forfeiture of the party’s position with respect to the requested discovery.  A party’s failure to meet and confer in good faith may result in the imposition of sanctions, including but not limited to an order to pay the opposing party’s expenses.  See Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(a)(5), (b).

If a hearing is set on a discovery motion, all parties should be fully prepared to argue any discovery motion on the date that it is presented. If the Court sets a hearing on a motion, the Court may rule on the discovery motion during or after the hearing and without further 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.

Any motions to compel must identify and attach the specific discovery requests at issue, as well as the opposing party’s response (i.e., motions must not simply identify specific “categories” of documents or discovery that the movant seeks).  Motions to compel must also include arguments supporting the relevance and proportionality of the requested discovery and a recitation of the parties’ meet and confer efforts.  Motions to compel may be summarily stricken for a failure to comply with these rules.  Moreover, parties must not seek overbroad requests in the hope that the Court will tailor the resolution on its own; each discovery request will be adjudicated based on the totality of the request, so parties should appropriately narrow their requests ahead of time.  Failure to do so may result in denial of the motion to compel with prejudice; the Court will not tailor a discovery request for the party when it could have done it on its own.

Parties must immediately notify the Court if they are withdrawing (or narrowing) any previously filed discovery motion.

Any motion to extend discovery deadlines must be presented in writing (after conferral with the other side), filed in advance of the discovery deadline, and must present the opposing party’s position and demonstrate good cause for the extension.

With particular respect to electronic discovery disputes, if the parties have reached an impasse regarding the discovery of 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 for each party in order to determine the most effective and feasible ways to retrieve the requested material, as well as the proper format for the retrieval of the records. This electronic discovery conference must take place in person, by telephone, or by video, and both sides should be prepared to discuss specifically the parameters of both the search(es) and the ESF.