Hon. Sunil R. Harjani

• [Civil Motion Practice and Memoranda of Law]
• Searchable Text All electronically filed documents shall be made word searchable before being filed on ECF.
• [Civil Motion Practice and Memoranda of Law]
• Before filing a motion, the movant's counsel must ask opposing counsel whether there is an objection to the motion.

The Court will set all newly-filed cases for an initial status hearing approximately 70 days after the filing of the complaint. The initial status hearing will be the scheduling conference as required by Rule 16(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b); Local Rule 16.1 . The parties must meet and conduct a planning conference as required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(f). The parties must file a Joint Initial Status Report, not to exceed five pages, at least seven days before the initial status hearing. The Joint Initial Status Report is the “discovery plan” required by Rule 26(f) and shall follow the format in this link . If the defendant(s) have not been served by the initial status date, counsel for plaintiff is to contact the Courtroom Deputy to reschedule the status hearing and the date for filing an initial status report. If plaintiff is seeking a default, no status report is required. In some cases, the scheduled initial status hearing may take place before a defendant has responded to the plaintiff’s complaint. The Court expects all defendants who have been served with process to participate in this conference even if they have not yet responded to the complaint. Source ↗

Civil Motion Practice and Memoranda of Law Civil Motions Parties should not notice motions for presentment. Upon the filing of a contested motion, the Court will enter a minute order in due course either setting a motion hearing, setting a briefing schedule, or otherwise providing further direction to the parties. Before filing a motion, the movant's counsel must ask opposing counsel whether there is an objection to the motion. Motions that are agreed or unopposed MUST include "agreed" or "unopposed" in the title of the motion. For motions to extend time, the movant must indicate whether the motion is opposed or unopposed and specify any prior extensions granted. If the motion is opposed, the movant must include a statement from the opposing party indicating the specific grounds for their objection. Memoranda of Law Absent prior approval of the court, all briefs in support of or in opposition to any motion shall comply with the fifteen (15) page limit set forth in Local Rule 7.1. In addition to these page limits, the Court applies the other format requirements of Local Rule 5.2(e) to electronically filed briefs. See Local Rule 5.2(e) for those page-size, font-size, margin, and spacing requirements. Citations Counsel shall cite to Westlaw citations for unpublished opinions, if available. It is not necessary to attach copies of unpublished opinions if they are available on Westlaw. Please attach copies of any cited authorities that are not available on Westlaw. To the extent possible, briefs and other filings (such as Rule 56.1 statements of fact) should cite exhibits by the ECF docket number and page, not exhibit number. Searchable Text All electronically filed documents shall be made word searchable before being filed on ECF. 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. Source ↗

Civil Motions: Parties should not notice motions for presentment. Upon the filing of a contested motion, the Court will enter a minute order in due course either setting a motion hearing, setting a briefing schedule, or otherwise providing further direction to the parties. Source ↗

Meeting Requirement on All Motions: The Court requires counsel to engage in a good-faith attempt to resolve, or at least narrow, disputed issues before a motion is filed. A candid discussion between counsel prior to filing motions to dismiss, motions for summary judgment, and motions in limine, among others, can limit the scope of such motions or eliminate the need for them to be filed at all. This requirement is designed to avoid unnecessary delay and expenditure of party and judicial resources. Source ↗

Prior to the filing of any summary judgment motion, the Court has two requirements: (1) any party who wishes to file a summary judgment motion must file a status report identifying the claims on which they intend to move for summary judgment, and explain why they believe there are no genuine disputes of material facts that warrant judgment as a matter of law; and (2) appear for an in-person status hearing to discuss that report. The Court will set a schedule for the status report and status hearing in an order on the docket. The report is limited to 10 pages; no response is needed. At the in-person status hearing, the Court will allow the opposing party to make a brief response, and the Court will likely have questions. No decisions are made at this hearing and nothing the parties or the Court says affects the summary judgment process. Rather, this hearing is meant as a preview and a means for the parties to discuss the case with the Court after discovery has closed. All counsel must also be prepared to explain their efforts to settle the case at this hearing. The Court will generally not set a summary judgment briefing schedule until the parties have demonstrated a good-faith effort to resolve the case by settlement, either on their own or with the assistance of the magistrate judge. Any summary judgment motion filed that does not follow this case management process will be stricken from the docket. Source ↗

Motions for Summary Judgment The Court requires strict compliance with Local Rules 56.1(a) and 56.1(b) in the briefing of all summary judgment motions. In addition, to assist the Court in reviewing the factual record submitted in connection with summary judgment motions, the Court requires the following: A courtesy copy of the memorandum of law, depositions and other materials relied upon in support of the motion (as required by Local Rule 56.1(a)(1)-(2) ) or in opposition to the motion (as required by Local Rule 56.1(b)(1)-(3) ) must be delivered to chambers within 24 hours of when it is filed. The courtesy copy of the compendium must be securely bound, must separately tab each document, and must contain an index identifying what document is contained under each tab. It must also have the CM/ECF header. All statements of undisputed material facts offered by the moving party under Local Rule 56.1(a)(2) , or statements of additional facts offered by the responding party under Local Rule 56.1(b)(3) , must list the facts in short, numbered paragraphs that refrain from argument. Argument must be reserved for the moving party’s memorandum of law. Each numbered fact statement must contain a specific citation to affidavits, depositions or other materials that support the fact statement, as well as to the tab(s) in the compendium where those materials may be found. Failure to provide support for a statement of fact may result in that alleged "fact" being disregarded. All responses to statements of undisputed material facts offered by the opposing party under Local Rule 56.1(b)(2) , or responses to statements of additional facts offered by the moving party under Local Rule 56.1(c)(2) , shall be in a format similar to that used in answering a complaint: that is, the response must repeat each numbered paragraph of the fact statement, and then immediately following each numbered statement must state whether the alleged fact is "undisputed" or "disputed." As with the fact statements submitted under Local Rules 56.1(a)(2) and 56.1(b)(2) , the responses to those fact statements must refrain from argument. The significance or lack of significance of a disputed or undisputed fact may be argued in the respondent’s legal memorandum. If a particular fact is "undisputed," nothing more should be said in the response. If a particular fact assertion is "disputed" in whole or in part, the response must state what part of the assertion is disputed and must contain a specific citation to the supporting affidavits, depositions or other materials as well as to the tab(s) in the compendium where those materials may be found. Failure to provide support for an alleged fact dispute may result in that fact being deemed admitted. In accord with Local Rule 56.1(d)(5) , absent prior leave of Court, a movant shall not file more than 80 separately numbered statements of undisputed material fact, and a party opposing a summary judgment motion shall not file more than 40 separately numbered statements of additional facts. The Court reminds parties that the fact statements under Local Rule 56.1(a)(2) and Local Rule 56.1(b)(3) "must consist of short numbered paragraphs." Motions to strike or deemed admitted Local Rule 56.1 statement of facts will not be accepted by the Court. These concerns should be raised in the parties’ briefs. Source ↗