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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

Center for Biological Diversity, 

Plaintiff, 

vs.

E. Scott Pruitt, et al. 

Defendants. 

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No. CV 18-50-TUC-JAS

ORDER

*AFTER ALL PARTIES HAVE BEEN SERVED AND HAVE ANSWERED THE

COMPLAINT, PLAINTIFF(S) SHALL FILE A MOTION INDICATING THAT ALL

DEFENDANTS HAVE FILED ANSWERS SUCH THAT THE CASE IS READY TO

PROCEED TO THE NEXT STEP IN THE LITIGATION (i.e., an Order requiring a Joint

Report from the parties and a Scheduling Order). As parties often voluntarily exchange

information and have discussions potentially leading to settlement early in the case (without

Court intervention), the Court will await this motion from plaintiff(s) before issuing an Order

calling for a joint case management report and case management conference. 

Communication with the Court

To avoid the appearance of impropriety by the Court or the parties and to preserve a

proper record in the event of any appeal, all communication with the Court shall occur via

a written motion filed into the official docket. The parties shall not contact the Court’s staff

(i.e., Law Clerks or the Judicial Assistant) telephonically or by e-mail to ask questions or

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The Court notes that all motions and filings must comply with the Local Rules, and

non-compliant filings may be disregarded or stricken as an attempt to subvert the Local Rules

which encourage the parties to be concise in their arguments. See LRCiv 7.1(b)(1)("The

body of all documents shall be typed, double-spaced and shall not exceed 28 lines per page;

they shall not be single-spaced . . . All pleadings, motions and other original documents filed

with the Clerk shall be in a fixed-pitch type size no smaller than . . . 10 letters per inch . . .

or in a proportional font size no smaller than 13 point, including any footnotes. Pages of

the document must be numbered. The left margin shall not be less than 1 1⁄2 inches and the

right margin shall not be less than 1⁄2 inch.)(emphasis added). Requests to exceed page limits

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express concerns regarding cases pending before the Court, and the Court has directed its

staff not to entertain any such informal communication. While the parties may give the

Court’s staff a courtesy call to give them notice of an emergency motion, settlement, or lastminute stipulation to adjust deadlines, all other communication with the Court shall occur via

a written motion. For example, if there is a discovery dispute, the parties shall not contact

the Court telephonically to resolve the dispute; the parties shall file a motion in compliance

with the Local Rules if they are unable to resolve the dispute.

Dispositive Motions 

A motion pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b) is discouraged if the defect can be cured by

filing an amended pleading. Therefore, the parties must confer prior to the filing of a motion

to dismiss to determine whether it can be avoided. Motions to dismiss must be accompanied

by a notice of certification of conferral indicating that the parties have conferred to determine

whether an amendment could cure a deficient pleading, and have been unable to agree that

the pleading is curable by a permissible amendment. In addition, parties shall endeavor not

to oppose motions to amend that are filed prior to the Scheduling Conference or within the

time set forth in the Rule 16 Case Management Order. Motions to dismiss that do not

contain the required certification may be stricken by the Court.

A party filing a dispositive motion shall file only one dispositive motion which

incorporates all relevant arguments. The dispositive motion shall be limited to 17 pages as

required by LRCiv 7.2(e); responses are limited to 17 pages and replies are limited to 11

pages. See LRCiv 7.2(e).1

 Parties are prohibited from simultaneously filing multiple

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(whether in the form of a motion, unopposed motion, or stipulation) will likely be denied,

and as such, the parties should plan to be concise in their arguments and comply with the

Local Rules on page limits and formatting. See LRCiv 7.2(e), 7.1(b)(1).

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dispositive motions directed at separate counts or issues in a case. While it is proper to file

one motion to dismiss early in the litigation and one motion for summary judgment after

discovery has been completed, it is not proper to simultaneously file multiple motions to

dismiss or multiple motions for summary judgment directed to separate counts or issues. The

parties should raise all of their arguments for dismissal in one motion to dismiss as early as

possible in the case, and raise all of their arguments for dismissal in one motion for summary

judgment after discovery has closed. The Court views the filing of such multiple motions

as an attempt to subvert the Local Civil Rules establishing page limits which encourage the

parties to be concise in their arguments; if necessary, the parties may seek leave to exceed

page limits to include all of their arguments in one motion to dismiss or one motion for

summary judgment. Furthermore, filing successive motions to dismiss or motions for

summary judgment after the Court has already resolved such a motion is extremely

inefficient and often causes long and unnecessary delays as a case is essentially halted during

the period between the filing of a dispositive motion and the Court's ultimate ruling on a

dispositive motion after it has been fully briefed. If a party files a successive motion to

dismiss or motion for summary judgment after such a motion has been resolved by the Court,

the successive motion to dismiss or motion for summary judgment will likely be summarily

denied as a motion for reconsideration. The Court also notes that if a party files an early

summary judgment motion before discovery has closed, the Court will likely grant an

opposing party's request to complete necessary discovery to properly oppose the motion; in

such circumstances, the early motion for summary judgment would be denied without

prejudice pending completion of necessary discovery. In light of the foregoing, the parties

should strive to include all of their arguments in one motion to dismiss early in the case and

one motion for summary judgment upon the close of discovery.

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Proposed Orders, Paper Copies, Exhibits, Authority Binders, and Emailing Documents

The parties must file a proposed order with any motion or stipulation filed with the Court

and such documents must comply with the applicable requirements in the local rules. See,

e.g., LRCiv 5.4, 5.5, 7.1, 7.2; Electronic Case Filing Administrative Policies and Procedures

Manual in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona ("Manual"). All

proposed orders must be emailed to chambers (soto_chambers@azd.uscourts.gov) in either

Word or Word Perfect format. See id.; Manual at 12-13 (describing pertinent e-filing

procedures in detail). In addition, if a motion is opposed, the opposing party shall file and

email to chambers a proposed order denying the motion. To the extent the parties file any

motions, responses, or replies as to substantive matters (such as motions for: injunctive relief,

to dismiss, for summary judgment, to compel, sanctions, etc.), the parties shall email Word

or Word Perfect copies of the motions, responses, or replies to chambers. Lastly, the parties

shall also email Word or Word Perfect copies of any separate statement of facts in support

of, or in opposition to, summary judgment or other dispositive motions. 

Paper copies of all filings must be mailed (except as noted below) to chambers (LRCiv

5.4); any motion, pleading, or other document which is submitted with more than one exhibit

must be accompanied by a Table of Contents and the exhibits must be indexed with tabs

which correspond to the Table of Contents. Anytime a party files a motion, response, reply,

or other brief with the Court, the party must mail the Court paper copies of all authority cited

in the brief which shall be included in a binder with a table of contents and exhibit tags

corresponding to the authority cited. Such authority includes, but is not limited to, case law,

rules, statutes, regulations, and treatises. To the extent case law, rules, statutes, or

regulations are cited, the entire case, rule, statute or regulation shall be included in the binder.

The case law shall be organized in alphabetical order. To the extent treatises are cited, only

the section(s) relied upon shall be included in the binder. As to all of the authority cited

which must be included in the binder, the parties shall also tag (with a post-it) the specific

page(s) cited in their briefs and highlight (by circling with a pen or using a highlighter) the

portion of the case, rule, statute, regulation, or treatise that supports the citations of authority

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The parties are not required to provide paper copies of stipulations and unopposed motions

to continue, and need not provide authority binders as to stipulations and unopposed motions to

continue.

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On rare occasions, the Court may find it necessary to issue an Order before the deadline to

the submit the required binders expires; in these circumstances, the binder requirement becomes

moot, and the parties are not required to submit binders.

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As to pro se parties, the Court notes that the full text of most legal authority is available via

numerous internet sites, including Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/), which is available

to the public and completely free. In addition, most legal authority can be found and copied for a

limited charge in various libraries located in most cities such as the law libraries located at the

University of Arizona College of Law and the various courthouses in Pima County. Legal authority

can also be found and printed out for a limited charge at sites such as westlaw.com and lexis.com.

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relied upon in their briefs. Within seven days after a document is filed, the parties shall

provide the Court with paper copies in strict compliance with this Order and file a notice that

they have strictly complied with the requirements in this Order; failure to timely file this

required notice will be viewed as a party's admission that they have failed to comply with this

Court's Order.2

 If an emergency motion is filed (including, but not limited to, a motion for

a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, emergency stay, or other motion that

warrants expedited action) that requires more immediate attention from the Court, the parties

shall provide the required paper copies no later than one business day (or sooner if possible)

after the motion, response or reply is filed pertaining to any emergency motion. If a party

fails to submit the required authority binder and other paper copies required by this Order3

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the Court may summarily deny or grant a motion as applicable to the party that failed to

comply with this Order, and the Court may dismiss the case with prejudice or enter a default

judgment as to the non-complying party.4

Plaintiffs shall serve a copy of this Order on Defendants at the same time they serve the

Summons and Complaint; if these have already been served on Defendants prior to Plaintiffs

receiving this Order, Plaintiffs shall serve this Order on Defendants within 14 days of the

filing date of this Order. Within 7 days of serving this Order on Defendants, Plaintiffs shall

file a notice with the Court indicating when Defendant was served with this Order. If all

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parties have already been served and entered an appearance into the record, Plaintiff need not

serve this Order as they will receive either a Notice of Electronic Filing through CM/ECF

or a paper copy (for pro se parties) of this Order through the Clerk of the Court.

DATED this 1st day of February, 2018.

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