The Court believes the parties can and should resolve most discovery disputes themselves. The Court will not consider any discovery motions unless the parties have complied with the meet-and-confer requirement under Local Rule 37.2. Any discovery 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, other than in exceptional circumstances, requires communication that takes place face-to-face (including by video) or by telephone. The Court prefers a face-to-face or video meeting; the mere exchange of correspondence, including email, normally will not be sufficient to comply with Local Rule 37.2. The Court considers failure to seriously engage in the meet-and-confer process to be grounds for denial of the motion.

Any response to a contested discovery motion must be filed within 3 business days of when the motion is filed. No replies in support of discovery motions shall be filed absent leave of court. The Court will generally decide discovery motions without hearing oral argument. If the Court believes a hearing is necessary, the Court will so order. If a hearing is set on a discovery motion, all parties should be fully prepared to argue any discovery motion on that date. 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 any further 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 relevancy and proportionality of the requested discovery and the parties’ meet and confer efforts. Motions to compel may be summarily stricken for a failure to comply with this order. 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 respect to disputes over electronic discovery, if the parties have reached an impasse regarding the discovery or 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 a qualified and knowledgeable 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 or via video, and both sides should be prepared to discuss specifically the parameters of both the search(es) and the ESF.