Atwell v. Progressive Northern Insurance Company

Opinion

1 || JORDAN P. SCHNITZER, ESQ. Nevada Bar No. 10744 2 || THE SCHNITZER LAW FIRM 3 710 South 9" Street, Suite 2 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 4 || Telephone: (702) 960-4050 Facsimile: (702) 960-4092 5 || Jordan@TheSchnitzerLawFirm.com 6 Attorney for Plaintiff 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT g DISTRICT OF NEVADA 9 ANDREW ATWELL, an individual; Case No.: 2:24-cv-02386-GMN-BNW 10 Plaintiff, = > = 1 vs. (PROPOSED) DISCOVERY SCHEDULIN' 2 ORDER = 13 || PROGRESSIVE NORTHERN INSURANCE COMPANY, an unknown entity; DOES 1 14 || through 10, and ROE CORPORATIONS 1 through 20, inclusive SPECIAL SCHEDULING REQUESTED 15

16 Defendants. 17 18 19 1. CONFERENCE: 20 The parties conducted the Rule 26(f) conference on February 10, 2025, with Jordan P. 21 || Schnitzer, Esq., of The Schnitzer Law Firm participating for Plaintiff, and Jennifer Insley Micheri, 22 || Esq., of Dennett Winspear LLP, participating for Defendant. This conference included discussion 23 || of the points outlined in FRCP 26(f)(2). 24 2. DISCOVERY PLAN: 25 a. The parties will exchange initial FRCP 26(a)(1) disclosures by February 24, 2025. b. The parties need discovery on all of the claims and defenses presented by the 27 parties. The parties do not request conducting discovery in phases or limited or 28 focused on particular issues.

c. The parties do not anticipate any issues regarding the disclosures, discovery, or 2 preservation of electronically stored information. The parties agreed that 3 electronically stored information should be produced in native format where 4 possible. 5 d. The parties do not presently anticipate any issues about claims of privilege or of 6 protection, but should an issue arise, the parties will confer to resolve the same, and 7 if needed, seek Court assistance. 8 e. The parties will meet and confer regarding the necessity of a stipulated protective 9 order and confidentiality agreement to be filed with the Court prior to the disclosure 10 of Defendant's materials regarding Plaintiffs contractual and extra-contractual 1] | ~ claims against Defendant. (Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(f)(3)(D)). 12 f. The parties do not request any changes to the limitations on discovery imposed = 13 \< under the rules. 14 g. The parties do not request any other orders from the court under FRCP 26(c), 16(b), 15 or 16(c) at this time. 16 h. Proposed Discovery Plan Dates: The parties are requesting discovery period of 17 365-days, outside of the presumptive reasonable discovery period of 180-days from 18 the appearance of the first Defendant to conduct discovery for the following 19 reasons: 20 □□ □□ . □ 1. Plaintiffs originally filed their Complaint in the Eighth Judicial 21 District Court, County of Clark, on August 26, 2024 □□□□□□□ 22 Action”). 23 □□ 2. On December 20, 2024, Defendants filed a Petition for Removal 24 with the instant Court. 25 3. On January 14, 2025, Plaintiff filed a Motion to Remand. 26 4. On January 27, 2025, Defendant filed a Response to the Motion to 27 Remand. 28

5. On February 3, 2025, Plaintiff filed a Reply to the Motion to 2 Remand. 3 6. Plaintiff has treated with approximately 8 different providers, and 4 Defendants will need time to obtain the records, assess the same, 5 obtain any related, prior medical records, in order for Defendants’ 6 medical experts to render their opinions. 7 7. This is a complex bad faith case resulting from an alleged failure to 8 tender payment, that the parties expect to be fact intensive and require 9 coordination of numerous depositions of non-parties. Additionally, 10 . the parties anticipate potential discovery issues given the nature of 11 | ~ the case. 12 As such, the parties respectfully request that they be allowed to deviate from the 180-day 13 \< discovery schedule to a 365-day discovery scheduled as follows:

14 e Amending Pleadings and Adding Parties November 12, 2025 15 e Initial Expert Disclosures November 12, 2025 16 e Rebuttal Expert Disclosures December 12, 2025 7 e Discovery Cut-off February 10, 2026 e Dispositive Motions March 12, 2026 18 e Pre-trial Order, if no dispositive motions April 10, 2026 19 3. ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION: The parties certified that they have 20 || conferred regarding alternative dispute resolution and no joint conclusion was reached regarding 21 || alternative dispute resolution. 22 4, TRIAL BY MAGISTRATE AND SHORT TRIAL PROGRAM: The parties 23 || considered trial by magistrate and use of the Short Trial Program and determined that neither 24 || would be appropriate for this matter.! 25 26 27 ' The parties reserve all objections to documents produced and witnesses identified initial disclosures and any later supplements. 28

] 5. ELECTRONIC EVIDENCE: As required under District of Nevada Local Rule 2 || 26-1(b)(9), the parties certify that they discussed whether they intend to present evidence in 3 || electronic format to jurors for the purposes of jury deliberations. More discovery is still needed at 4 || this time. The parties shall meet and confer further on this topic, including in an effort to reach 5 || stipulations regarding providing discovery in an electronic format compatible with the Court’s 6 || electronic jury evidence display system. 7 || Submitted by: DATED this 24 day of February 2025 8 || DATED this 24 day of February 2025. DENNETT WINSPEAR, LLP 9 || THE SCHNITZER LAW FIRM . oo, /s/ Jennifer Insley Micheri, Esq. 10 I /s/ Jordan P. Schnitzer, Esq. Ryan L. Dennett, Esq. Nevada Bar No. 5617 ~ | Jordan P. Schnitzer, Esq. Jennifer Insley Micheri, Esq. Nevada Bar No. 10744 Nevada Bar No. 10089 12 | 710 south 9" Street, Suite 2 3301 N. Buffalo Drive, Suite 195 Las Vegas, Nevada 89129 = Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 gas, 1 3 Attorneys for Plaintiff Attorneys for Defendant 14 ORDER 15 The parties request a discovery period of 365 days, measured from the date of their Rule 26(f) 16 | conference. However, under LR 26-1(b)(1), "the number of days required for discovery [is] 17 measured from" the date the first defendant answered or otherwise appeared. Defendant has not responded to the initial pleading. It removed the case on December 20, 2024. This Court will 18 || grant a discovery period of 365 days measured from the date Defendant filed its petition for removal. IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the proposed, stipulated discovery plan and 19 scheduling order is MODIFIED as follows: 20 Amend Pleadings/Add Parties: The deadline for filing motions to amend the pleadings or to 21 add parties is 90 days before the close of discovery, or September 23, 2025. Expert Disclosures: Expert disclosures must be made 60 days before the discovery cut-off date, 22 | or October 23, 2025. Rebuttal-expert disclosures must be made 30 days after the initial 3 disclosure of experts, or November 24, 2025. Discovery Cut-Off: The first defendant appeared on December 20, 2024. ECF No. 22. 24 || Discovery is due 365 days from that date, or December 22, 2025. Dispositive Motions: The deadline for filing dispositive motions is 30 days after the discovery 25 cut-off date, or January 21, 2026. %6 Pre-Trial Order: The deadline for the joint pretrial order is 30 days after the dispositive-motion deadline (February 20, 2026), or 30 days after a decision of the dispositive 27 motions is entered, whichever is later. 28 DATED: February 25, 2025 4 Peo tee ket