Sears v. City of Oroville ( 2023 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 Michael Sears, No. 2:22-cv-01624-KJM-KJN 12 Plaintiff, ORDER 13 v. City of Oroville, 1S Defendant. 16 17 Plaintiff Michael Sears brings this employment action against the City of Oroville. 18 | Compl., ECF No. 1. Oroville moves to dismiss two claims for failure to state a claim. Mot., ECF 19 | No. 7. In Oroville’s notice of motion, its counsel notes calling plaintiff's counsel requesting to 20 | meet and confer five days before filing, leaving a voicemail, and then following up by email with 21 | “a detailed description of each argument Defendant intended to raise.” /d. at 2. Plaintiff's 22 | counsel never responded. /d. 23 This court’s standing order requires attorneys to meet and confer with one another before 24 | they file motions. See Standing Order at 3, ECF No. 3-1; Mollica v. County of Sacramento, 25 | No. 19-2017, 2022 WL 15053335, at *1 (E.D. Cal. Oct. 26, 2022). Attorneys who intend to file 26 | motions must “discuss thoroughly the substance of the contemplated motion and any potential 27 | resolution.” /d. “Counsel should discuss the issues sufficiently so that if a motion of any kind is 1 | filed... the briefing is directed only to those substantive issues requiring resolution by the court.” 2 | dd. 3 With respect to the motion pending in this case, the court acknowledges the defense’s 4 | exhaustion of meet and confer, notwithstanding plaintiff's non-responsiveness. The court is not 5 | willing to excuse plaintiff's non-compliance with its standing order. “Meeting and conferring 6 | saves time and money for all involved—if done correctly. Productive discussions spare both the 7 | moving and opposing party the time they would otherwise have devoted to writing unnecessary or 8 | ineffective arguments.” Mollica, 2022 WL 15053335, at *1. For these reasons, plaintiffs 9 | counsel is ordered to show cause why monetary sanctions of $250 should not be imposed for 10 | failure to meet and confer with defense counsel in compliance with this court’s standing 11 | order. Plaintiff's counsel must show cause within seven (7) days of the filing date of this order. 12 IT IS SO ORDERED. 13 DATED: February 9, 2023. 14 CHIEF ED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE