Judge: Shirley K. Watkins, Case: 20VECV00369, Date: 2022-09-13 Tentative Ruling

If ALL parties submit on the tentative, then no appearance is necessary unless some other matter (i.e., Case Management Conference) is on calendar. It is not necessary to call the court to request oral argument. Oral argument is permitted on all tentative rulings.

Case Number: 20VECV00369    Hearing Date: September 13, 2022    Dept: T

TENTATIVE RULING

Moving party gives a detailed explanation of the steps it took to obtain the deposition of the plaintiff.

Plaintiff’s counsel does not oppose the motion on the law but only by declaration.  There is no explanation for 2-year delay in providing plaintiff for deposition.

Plaintiff’s counsel is the firm, and it was the firm’s responsibility to promptly assign new counsel, not a “handling attorney.”  In fact, there is confusion because the declaration states that Mr. Gi, prior “handling attorney” left the firm August 5^th and that Mr. Cohen was hired on 8/17/2022.  This means there was a 2-week period of time that no one was reviewing and supervising this case.

If counsel knew about the deposition notice once he was hired, then he should have known about the agreement by his office to provide plaintiff for deposition.  Sending an objection is not a good faith meet and confer nor a reasonable attempt to resolve the matter.

No substantial justification for failure to meet and confer once it was known the deposition was scheduled per agreement.

No substantial justification and no evidence of the cause of the delay since the original notice for plaintiff’s deposition was served.

A reasonable inference is that absent the motion, no affirmative action would have been taken by plaintiff’s counsel to reschedule the deposition.

No alternative dates were provided (as far as known to the court) in the objection.

Monetary sanctions would have been assessed against counsel Consumer Law Experts, PC for discovery abuse in failing to produce the plaintiff for deposition despite prior agreements to do so without substantial justification.  However, neither the caption of the notice of motion nor the notice of motion give notice of the request for sanctions, which are therefore denied.

 Deposition ordered to take place on 9/7/2022 at time and location to be determined by defense counsel.