Tinika Senior v. Circles of Life Residential Care LLC, et al.

Opinion

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

9 Tinika Senior, No. CV-26-01714-PHX-KML

10 Plaintiff, ORDER

11 v.

12 Circles of Life Residential Care LLC, et al.,

13 Defendants. 14 15 Plaintiff Tinika Senior filed this suit seeking unpaid wages. Senior named as 16 defendants three limited liability companies (“LLCs”) and two individuals. On April 21, 17 2026, the individuals filed a joint answer, and each LLC attempted to file an answer. (Docs. 18 11-14.) The answers were prepared by a certified legal document preparer. See Sobol v. 19 Alarcon, 131 P.3d 487, 488 (Ariz. Ct. App. 2006) (describing certified legal document 20 preparer program). While the answers filed by the individuals are appropriate, the answers 21 allegedly filed by the LLCs are not. 22 The LLCs can proceed in federal court only through counsel. See Rowland v. 23 California Men’s Colony, Unit II Men’s Advisory Council, 506 U.S. 194, 203 (1993). A 24 certified legal document preparer does not qualify as “counsel” for purposes of this 25 requirement because the preparer cannot provide “any kind of specific advice . . . about 26 possible legal rights, remedies, defenses, options, or strategies.” Ariz. Code of Judicial 27 Administration § 7-208(F)(1)(b). The answers filed by the LLCs are stricken and the LLCs 28 must appear through counsel within fourteen days. 1 IT IS ORDERED the answers found at Docs. 12, 13, 14 are STRICKEN. The 2 companies shall appear through counsel within fourteen days of this order. 3 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED as follows: 4 The parties are directed to meet, confer, and develop a Rule 26(f) Joint Case 5 Management Report, which must be filed within 4 weeks of the date of this order. It is 6 the responsibility of plaintiff(s) to initiate the Rule 26(f) meeting and prepare the Joint Case 7 Management Report. Defendant(s) shall promptly and cooperatively participate in the Rule 8 26(f) meeting and assist in preparation of the Joint Case Management Report. 9 The Joint Case Management Report shall contain the following information in 10 separately-numbered paragraphs. 11 1. The parties who attended the Rule 26(f) meeting and assisted in developing 12 the Joint Case Management Report; 13 2. A list of all parties in the case, including any parent corporations or entities 14 (for recusal purposes); 15 3. Any parties that have not been served and an explanation of why they have 16 not been served, and any parties that have been served but have not answered 17 or otherwise appeared; 18 4. A statement of whether any party expects to add additional parties to the case 19 or otherwise amend pleadings; 20 5. The names of any parties not subject to the court’s personal (or in rem) 21 jurisdiction; 22 6. A description of the basis for the court’s subject matter jurisdiction, citing 23 specific jurisdictional statutes. If jurisdiction is based on diversity of 24 citizenship, the report shall include a statement of the citizenship of every 25 party and a description of the amount in dispute. See 28 U.S.C. §1332; 26 7. A short statement of the nature of the case (no more than three pages), 27 including a description of each claim, defense, and affirmative defense; 28 8. A listing of contemplated motions and a statement of the issues to be decided 1 by those motions; 2 9. Whether the case is suitable for reassignment to a United States Magistrate 3 Judge for all purposes or suitable for referral to a United States Magistrate 4 Judge for a settlement conference; 5 10. The status of any related cases pending before this or other courts; 6 11. A discussion of any issues relating to preservation, disclosure, or discovery 7 of electronically stored information (“ESI”), including the parties’ 8 preservation of ESI and the form or forms in which it will be produced; 9 12. A discussion of any issues relating to claims of privilege or work product; 10 13. A discussion of necessary discovery, which should take into account the 11 December 1, 2015 amendments to Rule 26(b)(1) and should include: 12 a. The extent, nature, and location of discovery anticipated by the parties 13 and why it is proportional to the needs of the case; 14 b. Suggested changes, if any, to the discovery limitations imposed by the 15 Federal Rules of Civil Procedure; 16 c. The number of hours permitted for each deposition. The parties also 17 should consider whether a total number of deposition hours should be 18 set in the case, such as twenty total hours for plaintiffs and twenty 19 total hours for defendants. Such overall time limits have the advantage 20 of providing an incentive for each side to be as efficient as possible in 21 each deposition, while also allowing parties to allocate time among 22 witnesses depending on the importance and complexity of subjects to 23 be covered with the witnesses; 24 14. Proposed deadlines for each of the following events. In proposing deadlines, 25 the parties should keep in mind the Case Management Order will contain 26 deadlines to govern this case and once the dates have been set the court will 27 vary them only upon a showing of good cause. A request by counsel for 28 extension of discovery deadlines in any case that has been pending more than 1 two years must be accompanied by a certification stating the client is aware 2 of and approves of the requested extension. The court does not consider 3 settlement talks or the scheduling of mediations to constitute good cause for 4 an extension. The parties must propose the following: 5 a. A deadline for the completion of fact discovery, which will also be 6 the deadline for pretrial disclosures pursuant to Rule 26(a)(3). This 7 deadline is the date by which all fact discovery must be completed. 8 Discovery requests must be served and depositions noticed 9 sufficiently in advance of this date to ensure reasonable completion 10 by the deadline, including time to resolve discovery disputes. Absent 11 extraordinary circumstances, the court will not entertain discovery 12 disputes after this deadline; 13 b. Dates for full and complete expert disclosures and rebuttal expert 14 disclosures, if any; 15 c. A deadline for completion of all expert depositions; 16 d. A date by which any Rule 35 physical or mental examination will be 17 noticed if such an examination is required by any issues in the case; 18 e. A deadline for filing dispositive motions; 19 f. Case-specific deadlines and dates, such as the deadline to file a motion 20 for class certification or a date on which the parties are available for a 21 Markman (patent claim construction) hearing; 22 g. A date by which the parties shall have engaged in face-to-face good 23 faith settlement talks; 24 h. Whether a jury trial has been requested and whether the request for a 25 jury trial is contested, setting forth the reasons if the request is 26 contested; 27 i. Any other matters that will aid the court and parties in resolving this 28 case in a just, speedy, and inexpensive manner as required by Federal l Rule of Civil Procedure 1; 2 15. A statement indicating whether the parties would prefer that the court hold a 3 case management conference before issuing a scheduling order—and, if so, 4 an explanation of why the conference would be helpful. 5 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED the parties shall file a proposed Case Management 6 || Order containing all the proposed dates at the same time they file the Rule 26(f) Case 7 || Management Report. The proposed Case Management Order must also be emailed in Word 8 || format to Lanham_Chambers@azd.uscourts.gov. 9 Dated this 27th day of April, 2026. 10

Honorable Krissa M. Lanham 13 United States District Judge 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

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