UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA 

TALLAHASSEE DIVISION

DWIGHT SLATER, CASE NO.: 4:20-cv-436-WS-MAF 

Plaintiff, 

v. 

SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER, INC. 

Defendant.

_______________________________________/ 

REPORT OF PARTIES' PLANNING MEETING (FORM 52) AND 

 ADDITIONAL MATTERS REQUIRED BY INITIAL SCHEDULING ORDER

In accordance with the Initial Scheduling Order of the Court, the parties provide 

the following information: 

1. Pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(f) and this Court’s Order on Rule 26(f) 

Obligations, counsel for the parties (listed below) conferred on October 30, 2020. 

Jim Garrity, Counsel for Plaintiff 

Amy R. Turci, Counsel for Defendant 

2. Pre-Discovery Disclosures. The parties will exchange the information 

required by Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(a)(1) on or before December 31, 2020. 

3. Discovery Plan. The parties jointly propose to the Court the following 

discovery plan: 

a. Discovery will be needed on the following subjects: All matters 

covered in section 5 below. 

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b. All discovery commenced in time to be completed by August 31, 

2021. 

c. Interrogatories, requests for admissions and requests for production 

are to be governed by the applicable Federal Rules of Civil 

Procedure and Local Rules of this Court. 

d. Depositions - The number permitted by rule. 

e. Reports from retained experts under Rule 26(a)(2) are due: 

Plaintiff is not retaining an expert for testimony. 

From Defendant: By May 15, 2021.

g. The parties agree that electronic records or storage devices or 

systems may contain discoverable information. As a result, counsel 

for each party shall, within ten days of execution of this agreement, 

direct their clients to initiate a litigation hold as to relevant sources 

of evidence. The litigation hold entails (a) an immediate suspension 

of any routine practice, policy or procedure of destroying any 

documents or data that are potentially relevant (including 

electronically stored records, such as email and instant messages); 

and (b) collection and preservation of such documents/data for use 

in the litigation. Counsel shall advise their respective clients in 

writing that (a) the party is under a legal duty to preserve relevant 

evidence, including both paper documents and those that are stored 

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electronically, and that all document destruction in accordance 

with organizational policy must be suspended; and (b) that the 

litigation hold applies to information on the company’s network 

servers, e-mail server, workstations, laptops, portable hard drives, 

PDAs, employee personal computers and all other storage media, 

such as diskettes and CDs, as well as to all file types, including email, word processing documents, spreadsheets and power point 

presentations. Counsel shall identify the categories of documents 

that must be preserved and the time frame encompassed by the 

litigation hold, and shall explain that failure to comply with the 

instructions could result in discipline for the employee and the 

imposition of sanctions on the party. This memorandum shall be 

provided to Plaintiff and, in the case of Defendant, to each person 

likely to have possession, custody, or control of any such record or 

a role in purging of such records. 

g. Supplements are due within a reasonable time after discovering the 

need to supplement and in accordance with Rule 26(e). 

4. Other Items. 

a. The parties do not request a conference with the Court before entry 

of the Scheduling Order. 

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b. The parties request a Pretrial Conference consistent with the Court’s 

wishes. 

c. Plaintiff shall be allowed until December 31, 2020 to move to amend 

to join additional parties and to amend the pleadings. 

d. All potentially dispositive motions should be filed in accordance 

with this Court’s procedures. 

e. Settlement may be enhanced by the use of the following alternative 

dispute resolution procedures: Mediation may be attempted by the 

parties after the substantial completion of discovery. 

f. Final list of witnesses and exhibits under Rule 26(a)(3) should be 

due in accordance with the trial scheduling order from this Court. 

g. Parties should have one week after service of final list of witnesses 

and exhibits to list objections under Rule 26(a)(3). 

h. The case should be ready for trial consistent with the Court’s wishes, 

following a reasonable time for the Court’s consideration of 

dispositive motions and at this time it is expected to take 

approximately three days, exclusive of jury selection. 

i. The parties have conferred regarding magistrate judge jurisdiction. 

5. Nature and Basis of Claims and Defenses. 

The principal factual and legal issues in dispute are: 

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(1) Whether Plaintiff was the victim of discrimination under the applicable 

laws. 

(2) Whether Plaintiff may establish a prima facie case. 

(3) Whether Defendant’s actions and inactions involving Plaintiff were for 

legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons. 

(4) All other issues raised in Plaintiff’s Complaint and Defendants Answer 

and Affirmative Defenses. 

The parties respectfully request that these timetables and cutoff dates be 

approved. 

Submitted this 13th day of November 2020. 

Respectfully submitted, Respectfully submitted, 

 /s/ James Garrity /s/ Amy R. Turci

James Garrity, Esquire Amy R. Turci, Esq. 

MARIE A. MATTOX, P. A. FORD & HARRISON LLP 

203 North Gadsden Street 225 Water Street, Ste 710 

Tallahassee, FL 32301 Jacksonville, FL 32202 – 5118 

Telephone: (850) 383-4800 Telephone: (904) 357-2004 

Facsimile: (850) 383-4801 Facsimile: Facsimile: (904) 357-2001 

ATTORNEYS FOR PLAINTIFF ATTORNEY FOR DEFENDANT 

WSACTIVELLP:7837728.1

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