Judge: Mark H. Epstein, Case: 20STCV17129, Date: 2022-12-23 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 20STCV17129    Hearing Date: December 23, 2022    Dept: R

Defendant seeks to add designations after the cut off.  Plaintiff says that it is too late.  The parties stated that they could agree to the late designation if they could get a short continuance but Judge Young does not have the available space to hear it. 

As such, the court is looking at the overall function here of a trial: getting at the truth.  Here, while defendant’s explanation is not wholly satisfactory, the court does note that the proposed order for the continuance request would have extended the exchange deadline, at least arguably.  On balance, and after consultation with Judge Young, the court will GRANT the request.  The exchange is deemed made today (given that the information is in the original moving papers).

However, the depositions of the rebuttal experts will be taken only after plaintiff’s experts are deposed.  The court STRONGLY encourages plaintiff, therefore, to make experts available as quickly as possible; the failure to do so could result in adverse consequence.  Similarly, once plaintiff’s experts are deposed, the rebuttal experts should be made available immediately.  Failure to do so could also result in adverse consequence.  Accordingly, the court STRONGLY urges the parties to agree quickly on a deposition schedule.  If one party makes an unreasonable demand, it could well be that this court in another ex parte application while Judge Young is unavailable or Judge Young closer to trial will issue an appropriate order affecting the obstructing party’s ability to call experts.  The court also notes that it is more than likely that the parties will need to double-track the depositions or at least take more than one per day between now and trial.  While the court is ordering that the rebuttal experts not be deposed until after plaintiff’s experts are deposed, the court is not making a similar order regarding the order of deposition for non-rebuttal experts.

The court will allow depositions of expert witnesses already “on the table” (which includes undeposed experts as well as fact witnesses where a deposition has already been discussed and the parties agreed the deposition will be taken) to be taken until the business day before trial and the cut off is extended to that extent.  The parties may, of course, to otherwise extend the cut off (and may already have done so).