Hon. Eleanor L. Ross

Courtroom Deputy Clerk Michelle Beck is your principal point of contact on matters relating to this case. Neither the parties, nor their counsel should discuss the merits of the case with Mrs. Beck or any of the Court's law clerks. Mrs. Beck is oftentimes in the courtroom and may not return a call for up to 24 hours. Mrs. Beck's contact information is as follows: Michelle Beck Richard B. Russell Federal Building 2211 United States Courthouse 75 Ted Turner Drive, SW Atlanta, GA 30303-3309 (404) 215-1524 Michelle_Beck@gand.uscourts.gov Counsel and pro se parties are prohibited from engaging in ex parte communications with the Court or the Court's staff. "Ex parte communications" mean any form of contact with the Court outside the presence of the opposing party or opposing party's counsel. This includes, but is not limited to, telephone calls, written correspondence, or in-person contact, by one party or party's counsel. If counsel or a pro se litigant seeks court action, the appropriate procedure is to put the request in writing, in the form of a motion, file the motion with the Clerk's office, and serve the opposing party or party's counsel.

Objections to a Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation and Responses to those Objections shall be limited to fifteen (15) pages, absent special permission of the Court. Said objections and responses shall also comply with the formatting requirements of Local Rule 5.1, NDGa.

In accordance with the Court's Local Rules, motions are usually decided without oral argument, but the Court will consider any request for hearing if the party or parties requesting oral argument, specify the particular reasons argument may be helpful to the Court, and what issues will be the focus of the proposed argument.

Except for emergency motions filed pursuant to Local Rule 7.2(b), the delivery of a hard copy of a document, in addition to the electronically filed copy, is not necessary, as the Court prefers to rely on its electronic access to court filings.

For all consent, unopposed, or joint motions, the filing party shall include therewith a proposed order granting the motion. The proposed order shall be filed as an exhibit or attachment for all such motions.

As a general matter, this Court will seal only those items enumerated in the Court's Standing Order 04-02 regarding sensitive information and public access to electronic case files. It is the general policy of this Court not to allow the filing of documents under seal without a Court order, even if all parties consent to the filing under seal. To request to file material under seal, the parties should follow the procedures provided in Section II(J) of Appendix H to the Court's Civil Local Rules, available on the Court's website.

In accordance with the Court's Local Rules, motions are usually decided without oral argument, but the Court will consider any request for hearing if the party or parties requesting oral argument, specify the particular reasons argument may be helpful to the Court, and what issues will be the focus of the proposed argument. Moreover, the Court shall consider granting a request for oral argument on a contested, substantive motion if the request states than an attorney who is less than five (5) years out of law school will conduct the oral argument on at least one substantial issue in the case, it being the Court's belief that young attorneys need more opportunities for Court appearances than they usually receive.

The parties shall not file discovery motions (including motions to compel, motions for protective order, motions for sanctions) without prior permission from the Court. These disputes may often be resolved in a conference, resulting in less delays of discovery. In the event a discovery dispute arises, the parties are required to meet and confer in an effort to resolve the dispute. Counsel or pro se litigants are required to confer--by telephone or in person--in good faith before bringing a discovery dispute to the Court. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c) and 37(a)(1); LR 37.1A, NDGa. The duty to confer is NOT satisfied by sending a written document, such as a letter, email, or fax, to the adversary, UNLESS repeated attempts to confer by telephone or in person are unsuccessful due to the conduct of the adversary. If the dispute cannot be resolved, the parties shall electronically file on the docket a Consolidated/Joint Discovery Statement outlining their positions on each of the discovery items in dispute. The Consolidated Statement should conform to these guidelines: I. Page Limits: a. For 4 or less issues: 6 pages b. For 5-10 issues: 10 pages c. For more than 10 issues: 12 pages II. Formatting: The statement should be formatted in a logical order, i.e., identify each issue in dispute followed by a discussion from each of the parties setting forth an explanation of its respective position on the issue. III. Attachments: The parties are required to attach as an exhibit to the Consolidated Statement an excerpt of the relevant discovery requests including only the language of the specific requests and, potentially, the disputed responses, that are the subject of the dispute. The Court will determine whether the dispute can be resolved on the papers or whether a conference is necessary and will notify the parties accordingly. All discovery conferences will be recorded by a court reporter.