Johnson v. Reliant Property Mgt., Inc. ( 2023 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 Kaitlyn Johnson, No. 2:23-cv-01817-KJM-CKD 12 Plaintiff, ORDER 13 v. 14 Reliant Property Management, Inc., 1S Defendant. 16 17 18 Plaintiff Kaitlyn Johnson moves to remand this case to state court. See Mot. Remand, 19 | ECF No. 7. Defendant Reliant Property Management, Inc. moves to vacate the hearing date for 20 | the motion to remand because plaintiff did not meet and confer before filing the motion. Mot. 21 | Vacate, ECF No. 10. For the reasons below, the court vacates the motion hearing for failure to 22 | meet and confer. 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. 6-1; 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.” Standing Order at 3. “Counsel should discuss the issues sufficiently so that if a 28 | motion of any kind is filed . . . the briefing is directed only to those substantive issues requiring 1 | resolution by the court.” /d. If a motion is necessary after meeting and conferring, the moving 2 | party must include a certification by an attorney “that meet and confer efforts have been 3 | exhausted, with a brief summary of meet and confer efforts.” /d. (emphasis omitted). “Meeting 4 | and conferring saves time and money for all involved—if done correctly. Productive discussions 5 | spare both the moving and opposing party the time they would otherwise have devoted to writing 6 | unnecessary or ineffective arguments.” Mollica, 2022 WL 15053335, at *1. 7 With respect to the pending motion to remand, the court is not willing to excuse 8 | noncompliance with its standing order. Meeting and conferring would likely help narrow the 9 | parties’ disputes. For example, the parties appear to disagree where plaintiff is domiciled. 10 | Compare Mot. Vacate at 2-8 with Opp. at 2, 4-8. 11 For these reasons, the court vacates the motion hearing on plaintiff's motion to 12 | remand set for November 3, 2023. The court further directs the parties to meet and confer 13 | and file a joint report within 21 days. If necessary, the court will reschedule the motion 14 | hearing. 15 This order resolves ECF No. 10. 16 IT IS SO ORDERED. 17 DATED: October 17, 2023. / 18 CHIEF ED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 45