Judge: Thomas D. Long, Case: 24STCV01659, Date: 2025-02-18 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 24STCV01659    Hearing Date: February 18, 2025    Dept: 48

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES - CENTRAL DISTRICT

On January 22, 2024, Plaintiff Keatrina J. Burleson filed this action against Defendant Clear View Sanitarium, Inc.

On September 5, 2024, Plaintiff filed two motions to compel Defendant’s further responses to Form Interrogatories.

For a motion to compel further, Plaintiff must meet and confer with Defendant and file a Separate Statement or follow the Court’s alternative method of outlining the disputes.  (Code Civ. Proc., § 2031.310, subd. (b); California Rules of Court, rule 3.1345(b).)  This Department requires the parties to follow the procedures outlined in Exhibit A of Department 48’s Courtroom Information (available on the Court’s website) and file a joint statement.  Plaintiff’s motions make clear that they did not attempt to follow Department 48’s procedures for a joint statement.

Additionally, it is a sanctionable misuse of the discovery process when a party fails “to confer in person, by telephone, or by letter with an opposing party or attorney in a reasonable and good faith attempt to resolve informally any dispute concerning discovery, if the section governing a particular discovery motion requires the filing of a declaration stating facts showing that an attempt at informal resolution has been made.”  (Code Civ. Proc., § 2023.010, subd. (i).)  The required declarations were not filed with these motions, so the Court cannot determine whether Plaintiff engaged in a good faith attempt to resolve the issues before filing the motions.

The parties are ORDERED to meet and confer about the substantive issues.  After meeting and conferring in good faith, the parties are ordered to file a joint statement addressing only the remaining issues, following the procedures outlined in Exhibit A of Department 48’s Courtroom Information (available on the court’s website).

The Hearings on Motion to Compel Further Responses are continued to __________________ at 8:30 a.m. in Department 48 at Stanley Mosk Courthouse.

The Joint Statement shall be filed no later than five court days before the hearing.

Moving party to give notice.

Parties who intend to submit on this tentative must send an email to the Court at SMCDEPT48@lacourt.org indicating intention to submit.  If all parties in the case submit on the tentative ruling, no appearances before the Court are required unless a companion hearing (for example, a Case Management Conference) is also on calendar.

         Dated this 18th day of February 2025