(SS) Watkins v. Commissioner of Social Security ( 2022 )

1 PHILLIP A. TALBERT United States Attorney 2 PETER K. THOMPSON (HI 5890) Acting Regional Chief Counsel 3 MARGARET LEHRKIND, CSBN 314717 Special Assistant United States Attorney 4 Social Security Administration 160 Spear Street, Suite 800 5 San Francisco, CA 94105 Telephone: (510) 970-4829 6 Facsimile: (415) 744-0134 Attorneys for Defendant 7 8 9 10 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 11 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 12 FRESNO DIVISION 13 14 No. 1:21-cv-01572-BAM JIMMY WATKINS, 15 Plaintiff, STIPULATION AND PROPOSED ORDER FOR 16 EXTENSION TO FILE DEFENDANT’S v. OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFF’S OPENING 17 BRIEF KILOLO KIJAKAZI, 18 Acting Commissioner of Social Security, 19 Defendant.1 20 IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED, by and between Jimmy Watkins (Plaintiff) and Kilolo 21 Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of Social Security (Defendant), by and through their respective 22 counsel of record, that, with the Court’s approval, Defendant shall have an extension of time of 23 sixty (20) days to file a Response to Plaintiff’s Opening Brief. This is Defendant’s first request 24 25 1 Kilolo Kijakazi became the Acting Commissioner of Social Security on July 9, 2021. Pursuant 26 to Rule 25(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Kilolo Kijakazi should be substituted, 27 therefore, for Andrew Saul as the defendant in this suit. No further action need be taken to continue this suit by reason of the last sentence of section 205(g) of the Social Security Act, 42 28 U.S.C. § 405(g). 1 for an extension on her Response to Plaintiff’s Opening Brief. The current due date is May 31, 2 2022. The new date will be June 20, 2022. All other deadlines will extend accordingly. 3 Good cause exists for this request. Defendant’s counsel has worked diligently to meet the 4 timelines provided by the Court but requires more time to engage in settlement discussions with 5 her client. An extension of 20 days will allow Defendant’s counsel to complete those discussions 6 and to offer Plaintiff a settlement, if approved by her client. Defendant requests this extension in 7 good faith, and with no intent to delay these proceedings unnecessarily. Defendant apologizes to 8 the Court for any inconvenience caused by this delay. 9 10 Respectfully submitted, 11 DATE: May 27, 2022 /s/ Benjamin Paul Feld 12 BENJAMIN PAUL FELD 13 Attorney for Plaintiff (as approved via email) 14 PHILLIP A. TALBERT 15 Acting United States Attorney 16 DATE: May 27, 2022 By s/ Margaret Lehrkind 17 MARGARET LEHRKIND Special Assistant United States Attorney 18 Attorneys for Defendant 19 20 ORDER 21 The Court has received and reviewed the parties’ stipulation. Generally, settlement 22 discussions do not provide good cause for modification of a Scheduling Order. See, e.g., 23 Gerawan Farming, Inc. v. Rehrig Pacific Co., No. 11-cv-01273-LJO-BAM, 2013 WL 1164941, * 24 4 (E.D. Cal. Mar. 20, 2013). However, the Court will grant the brief extension of time in 25 recognition of the recent influx of Social Security cases requiring briefing. Accordingly, 26 Defendant’s request for an extension of time to file a response to Plaintiff’s Opening Brief is 27 GRANTED. Defendant shall file a response to Plaintiff’s Opening Brief on or before June 20, 28 1 2022. All other deadlines in the Court’s Scheduling Order are extended accordingly. 2 IT IS SO ORDERED. 3 4 Dated: May 31, 2022 /s/ Barbara A. McAuliffe _ UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28