Scott v. Olsen ( 2024 )

Attorney General 2 KYLE L. HILL, (Bar No.16094) Deputy Attorney General 3 State of Nevada Office of the Attorney General 4 1 State of Nevada Way, Ste. 100 Las Vegas, Nevada 89119 5 (702) 486-0429 (phone) (702) 486-3768 (fax) 6 Email: khill@ag.nv.gov 7 Attorneys for Interested Party Nevada Department of Corrections 8 9 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 10 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 11 JAMES EDWARD SCOTT, III, Case No. 3:23-cv-00274-ART-CLB 12 Plaintiff, ORDER APPROVING 13 v. INTERESTED PARTY’S MOTION TO VACATE THE EARLY 14 K.G. OLSEN, et al., MEDIATION CONFERENCE 15 Defendant. 16 Interested Party, the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC), by and through 17 counsel, Aaron D. Ford, Nevada Attorney General, and Kyle L. Hill, Deputy Attorney 18 General, hereby moves this Court for an order vacating the Early Mediation Hearing set 19 for Tuesday, August 6, 2024. 20 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES 21 I. INTRODUCION 22 This case is a pro se civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §1983. ECF No. 1-1 at 23 1. Plaintiff, James Scott (Scott) is an offender currently housed at Northern Nevada 24 Correctional Center (NNCC). After mandatory screening, this Court permitted Scott to 25 proceed on two claims: (1) a First Amendment Establishment Clause claim against 26 Defendants K.G. Olsen, Perry Russell, Frenandeis A. Frazier, Mike or John W. Henley, 27 Robert Ashcraft, and Robert Hartman; and (2) claims under the First Amendment’s Free 28 Exercise Clause and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 2 Henley, Robert Ashcraft, and Robert Hartman. ECF No. 6 at 7:22-28. 3 II. ARGUMENT 4 Currently, Scott has a number of active lawsuits that are at various stages in 5 litigation. Many of Scott’s earliest screened cases are now in discovery. The parties have 6 met for numerous early mediation conferences (EMC) and a global settlement conference 7 conducted by Judge Carla Baldwin, which for the exception of Case No. 3:23-cv-00265- 8 MMD-CSD (.265), have not resulted in settlements. 9 An early mediation conference is set for Tuesday, August 6, 2024 at 1:00 pm. (ECF 10 No. 9) In preparation for the conference, counsel for the Defendants contacted Plaintiff to 11 discuss this matter. During this conversation, parties agreed that following the settlement 12 agreement in .265, the parties have conferred on potential settlements in upcoming EMCs 13 and have determined future settlements are unlikely to occur at this time. The terms which 14 the parties reached in .265 precludes the ability to settle future cases on similar terms, and 15 the parties have been unable to reach an acceptable middle ground on all other cases. 16 Magistrate Judge Ferenbach, in Hill v Villatoro, 2021 WL 8016717 (D. Nev. 2021) 17 stated as follows: 18 Prisoner civil-rights cases under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 generally require significant time and resources to resolve. These costs are 19 perhaps most acutely felt by incarcerated plaintiffs who understandably want swift resolution for alleged constitutional 20 violations but often lack the funds needed to retain an attorney to prosecute their claims. In an effort minimize these costs, the 21 U.S. District for the District of Nevada created the Inmate Early Mediation Program, in which eligible § 1983 cases are sent to 22 early mediation after the Court screens the complaint. A party moving to exclude a case from the program must demonstrate 23 why the case is not suitable for mediation. In any event, defendants in cases that the Court has referred to its mediation 24 program have the right not to make any settlement offers, and plaintiffs have the right not to accept settlement offers. And 25 when mediation does not appear likely to be productive and save resources, the Court may choose to remove a case from the 26 program and vacate any scheduled mediation conference. 27 Id. at 1. 28 /// 1 ||WI. CONCLUSION 2 Based upon the conversation between the undersigned counsel and Scott, the 3 || Interested Party respectfully requests this Court vacate the Early Mediation Conference A || set for Tuesday, August 6, 2024, at 1:00 pm. The Interested Party requests that the Court 5 |}use its inherent powers to control its docket by issuing an order vacating the early 6 || mediation conference and ending the 90-day stay. 7 DATED this 1st day of August, 2024 8 AARON D. FORD 9 Attorney General 10 By: /s/ Kyle L. Hill KYLE L. HILL (Bar No. 16094) 11 Deputy Attorney General 12 Attorneys for Defendant 13 14 15 IT IS SO ORDERED. 17 DATED: August 2, 2024. co Ss oy 19 Craig S. Denney, U.S. M@gistrate Judge 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28