Timing

            All motions must be filed no later than the third business day (excludes federal holidays and weekends) before the day the motion is to be heard. For examples, absent a holiday, (1) a motion filed on a Monday may be noticed for the upcoming Thursday; and (2) a motion filed on a Thursday may be noticed for the following Tuesday. For civil cases and non-custodial criminal cases, the motion schedule is Monday through Thursday at 8:30 a.m. For in-custody defendants in criminal cases (and if the motion requires the defendant’s presence), the motion schedule is Monday through Thursday at 9 a.m.

            The exception to the 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. hearing times is as follows: if there is an already-scheduled status hearing at a different time, then the motion may be noticed for that already-scheduled time. This applies only to the time of the hearing; all other in-advance requirements must be met.

Courtesy copies

            Generally, the Court does not accept courtesy copies. Please do not prepare them and do not try to deliver them. If you think that a courtesy copy would be truly, truly invaluable, then please email (copying the other side) the courtroom deputy for guidance.

Electronic filing / OCR searchable text

            With regard to CM/ECF filing, for any word-processed filing (e.g., briefs and memoranda), counsel shall convert the document into a .pdf document by printing or publishing to .pdf, rather than manually scanning a paper copy into .pdf, in order to generate searchable optical character recognition (OCR) text. For any filing of any kind (including exhibits in support of a motion or any Local Rule 56.1 Statement), counsel must run an OCR conversion on it before uploading it onto CM/ECF. To do this in Adobe, go to Tools, Text Recognition, In This File, and select All Pages. If you see the message, “Acrobat could not perform recognition (OCR) on this page because this page contains renderable text,” click “Ignore future errors in this document,” and click OK.

Other requirements (including conferral)

            Before filing a motion, the movant’s counsel must ask opposing counsel whether there is an objection to the motion, and the motion must state that the conferral occurred, or if not, why not. If there is an objection, the movant must note that fact on the first page of the motion and of any separate brief in support. Joint, uncontested, and agreed motions must be so identified in both the title and the body of the motion. Trial dates and discovery deadlines generally will not be reset except by written motion.

            In addition to the 15-page limit on briefs, Local Rule 7.1, the Court applies the other format requirements of Local Rule 5.2(c) to electronically filed briefs. See Local Rule 5.2(c) for those page-size, font-size, margin, and spacing requirements. Counsel shall not respond to motions by correspondence with the Court.