R.C. Olmstead, Inc. v. CU Interface, LLC , 606 F.3d 262 ( 2010 )

KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judge,

concurring.

I join the court’s opinion, and write briefly to emphasize that it was not only permissible, but salutary that the district court chose to enforce Rule 26(a)(2)(B) by striking Olmstead’s expert report. The report was patently noncompliant with the Rule. Olmstead contends that it should have been given another chance to comply — that, essentially, it was entitled to a free violation- — but in my view the district court was entirely right to reject that contention. The time to comply with the Rules is when the district court’s scheduling order says to comply, not weeks later when faced with a motion for noncompliance. Every violation of the Rules has consequences; the question is who will bear them. Too often the consequences are borne only by the innocent party, who must live with the violation (here, a useless report) or else pay to brief and argue a motion to compel the offending party to do what the Rules required it to do all along. Better instead to make the offending party pay a price, and thereby also to remind others that they, too, should comply the first time.