Gonzalez v. Amazon.com Services LLC

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 CASSANDRA GONZALEZ, Case No. 1:24-cv-00325-KES-CDB 12 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING STIPULATED REQUEST TO CONTINUE DEADLINES 13 v. AND AMENDING SCHEDULING ORDER 14 AMAZON.COM SERVICES, LLC, AS MODIFIED

15 Defendant. (Doc. 19)

16 ORDER VACATING MID-DISCOVERY STATUS CONFERENCE 17 18 19 Background 20 Pending before the Court is the parties’ stipulated request to continue case management 21 deadlines. (Doc. 19). In support of the request, the parties represent that, since the filing of this 22 action, counsel for both Plaintiff and Defendant have changed the attorneys handling this matter. 23 This has required the new handling attorneys to take additional time to familiarize themselves with 24 the case. The parties provide that they are actively involved in informal negotiations and, if 25 unsuccessful, may consider scheduling a settlement conference through the Court. As such, they 26 have agreed to conserve resources as to discovery until they have had the opportunity to engage in 27 settlement discussions. (Id. at 2; Doc. 19-1 at 2). The parties met and conferred on March 17, 28 2025, regarding the requested continuance. (Doc. 19-1 at 2). Additionally, in their joint status 1 report filed in advance of the mid-discovery status conference, the parties represent that they have 2 exchanged initial disclosures, documents, and written discovery. (Doc. 18 at 2). 3 Discussion 4 The parties propose the following extended deadlines (Doc. 19 at 3): 5 Event Current Date New Date 6 Non-Expert Discovery Deadline 05/30/2025 08/28/2025 7 Expert Disclosure Deadline 06/30/2025 09/28/2025 8 Rebuttal Disclosure Deadline 07/14/2025 10/12/2025 9 Expert Discovery Deadline 08/29/2025 11/27/2025 10 Mid-Discovery Status Conference 03/27/2025 11 Non-Dispositive Motion Filing Deadline 05/30/2025 08/28/2025 12 Non-Dispositive Motion Hearing 07/08/2025 13 Dispositive Motion Filing Deadline 06/19/2025 09/17/2025 14 Dispositive Motion Hearing 08/04/2025 15 Pre-Trial Conference 12/01/2025 03/01/2026 16 Trial 01/27/2026 04/27/2026 17 As the parties have not demonstrated good cause for a 90-day continuance, the Court finds 18 a shorter continuance of 45 days as to the above dates to be warranted. 19 Given the extension of other deadlines, it is impractical to grant the parties’ request while 20 maintaining the current mid-discovery status conference, non-dispositive motion hearing, and 21 dispositive motion hearing dates. As such, the mid-discovery status conference, non-dispositive 22 motion hearing, and dispositive motion hearing dates will be extended. 23 In light of the extensions of time granted herein, the Court admonishes the parties that it is 24 unlikely to grant further extensions of time absent extraordinary circumstances. As the Court of 25 Appeals has observed: 26 In these days of heavy caseloads, trial courts in both the federal and state systems routinely set schedules and establish deadlines to foster efficient treatment and 27 resolution of cases. Those efforts will be successful only if the deadlines are taken seriously by the parties, and the best way to encourage that is to enforce the 28 1 strictly with scheduling and other orders .. . 2 Wong v. Regents of Univ. of Cal., 410 F.3d 1052, 1060 (9th Cir. 2005). While the Court finds a 3 | brief extension of deadlines appropriate to accommodate the parties’ anticipated settlement 4 | discussions, it will require that protracted discussions beyond the six-week extension granted herein 5 | be undertaken in parallel with timely completion of discovery obligations. 6 | Conclusion and Order 7 In light of the parties’ representations and good cause appearing, IT IS HEREBY 8 | ORDERED that the scheduling order (Doc. 14) be amended only to the extent of continuing the 9 following deadlines: 10 Event Prior Date Amended Date 11 1. Non-Expert Discovery Deadline 05/30/2025 07/14/2025 12 2. Expert Disclosure Deadline 06/30/2025 08/14/2025 13 3. Rebuttal Disclosure Deadline 07/14/2025 08/28/2025 14 4. Expert Discovery Deadline 08/29/2025 10/13/2025 IS 5. Mid-Discovery Status Conference 03/27/2025 05/15/2025 16 6. Non-Dispositive Motion Filing Deadline 05/30/2025 07/14/2025 17 7. Non-Dispositive Motion Hearing 07/08/2025 08/22/2025 18 8. Dispositive Motion Filing Deadline 06/19/2025 08/04/2025 19 9. Dispositive Motion Hearing 08/04/2025 09/22/2025 20 10. Pre-Trial Conference 12/01/2025 01/20/2026 21 11. Trial 01/27/2026 03/24/2026 22 IT IS SO ORDERED. 23 Dated: _ March 21, 2025 | br 24 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 25 26 27 28