Opinion ID: 1043390
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hearing on Second/Renewed Motion to Extend

Text: On August 6, 2009, after the EEOC identified its experts, the court held a hearing on the EEOC’s second/renewed motion to amend the case management order. The transcript of the hearing reveals the district court’s misunderstanding of the nature and extent of the EEOC’s: 1) task of preparing an expert statistical report, and 2) presuit investigation process- the statistical proof the EEOC was required to gather before filing suit. I discuss the hearing at length because I believe the lower court’s flawed understanding is highly relevant to both the merits inquiry and procedural abuse analysis that the lower court performed before assessing fees. The court began by stating that it applied a “good cause” standard to granting motions to amend. Under this standard, the court required a party to show that it acted diligently but was still unable to meet the established deadlines. The court expressed its concern that the EEOC acted dilatorily when it failed immediately, or at least more quickly, to obtain its experts. The EEOC responded that it had acted diligently, but it was still unable to produce its expert reports on time. The EEOC stated that it began the process of researching, writing, and revising expert contracts in December 2008 or January 2009 at the latest (less than one month after filing the case). The agency also explained that federal regulations required it to follow a bidding process for hiring vendors and experts, and the EEOC attorneys could not legally circumvent the internal agency protocols. In response to the EEOC’s explanation of its efforts the court stated that “protocols within the agency can’t govern the civil procedure process, and [the agency had] to have good faith at the start.” The court went on to express concern that the EEOC waited sixty days to serve its first set of interrogatories, to which the EEOC responded that during that time the agency was working diligently with its electronic document experts to craft its interrogatories for Peoplemark. The agency stated that it needed to see what Peoplemark No. 11-2582 E.E.O.C. v. Peoplemark Page 31 produced in its Rule 26 disclosures before it could begin drafting its first set of interrogatories. The EEOC explained that after receiving Peoplemark’s Rule 26 disclosures, the agency’s attorneys and experts underwent an extensive joint drafting process. This was necessary, according to the EEOC, because the first set of interrogatories sought information regarding electronic storage systems and formats of electronically stored documents. For this reason, the EEOC attorneys could not simply draft the interrogatories themselves – they were not computer experts. The EEOC also clarified for the court that it could not simply modify an existing interrogatory template. Rather, based on documents provided in Peoplemark’s Rule 26 disclosures, the EEOC needed to craft interrogatories specific to the electronic programs they believed were in use at Peoplemark’s offices. The court replied that the EEOC could have limited the number of Peoplemark’s offices that it included in the suit if it was concerned about meeting deadlines. The court also stated that it had been generous with scheduling and never had such issues with a government litigant. In the court’s opinion, “[P]art of coming to court is having the court put reasonable limits on and see which parties make it through that process and which parties don’t, and that’s part of the way we drive to a result.” The EEOC responded that although the government’s internal protocols contributed to some delay in the EEOC’s ability to physically go out and start copying and scanning documents, the government’s protocols were not the sole or even the main reason the EEOC was unable to meet the court’s deadlines. The EEOC reiterated the discovery disputes laid out in both its first and second motions to amend the case management order. The EEOC argued that if Peoplemark had not waited over two months to answer the EEOC’s first set of interrogatories and over ninety days to agree to produce documents, then, despite delays caused by government regulations, the EEOC likely would have been able to request and secure someone to No. 11-2582 E.E.O.C. v. Peoplemark Page 32 gather the documents much sooner. Furthermore, during the time the EEOC was processing those documents it could have finalized the contract for its statistical expert who, up to that point in the process, would have been totally unnecessary. The court’s response was: Well, the documents part addresses whether you make the expert report deadline, and we don’t know that. I mean, when we talked in July, you didn’t think you’d make the [expert identification] disclosure deadline, and you did . . . And if you have a report deadline that’s still, what, 60 days away, even though that seems impossible now, maybe you’ll make that too . . . Or maybe you’ll come close or make it in part. Or maybe having the deadline will mean that you’d get a lot closer to it than you would if the deadline were extended. I mean, the reality of the deadline is it marshals resources that we didn’t even know we had. That’s just what a deadline does. The court proceeded to reprimand the EEOC for not filing a motion to compel after Peoplemark stalled in setting a date for production. The EEOC responded that it was hesitant given the court’s resolution of its first motion to compel and the court’s earlier award of sanctions. Throughout the remainder of the hearing, the court continued to speculate, in the face of Dr. Madden’s affidavit, that it might be possible for the EEOC to copy, scan, create an e-database, code, analyze, and produce a report in the next sixty days. The EEOC firmly maintained that it was absolutely impossible for it to do so. The EEOC stated that it was able to identify experts only because it obtained exceptional approval, but it was physically impossible to do the work necessary to produce the expert reports in sixty days. In response to the EEOC’s firm statement that it was absolutely impossible to complete all the steps required to produce an expert report in sixty days, the court retorted, “I’m suspecting in September [the deadline for producing expert reports] you may have another vision of how powerful and effective you really are.” After the lengthy dialogue between the court and EEOC, Peoplemark announced that it had asked all of its offices to send the documents requested by the EEOC to No. 11-2582 E.E.O.C. v. Peoplemark Page 33 Memphis. Peoplemark stated that it had already scanned all of the documents from the Grand Rapids office. The company stated that it had put the information onto two discs and the day before sent the discs to the EEOC. Peoplemark stated that it would do the same for the remaining offices. The EEOC responded with surprise to Peoplemark’s decision immediately to scan and produce all of the documents. The agency stated that the company’s offer came as quite a shock in light of its previous refusal to provide the documents and its reluctant agreement, after a ninety day wait, to provide the documents only after the court issued a protective order. The EEOC told the court that, assuming the discs were complete, Peoplemark’s offer to copy and scan the paper records would reduce by two weeks the time the EEOC needed to produce its expert reports. The court closed the hearing by restating that it still believed the EEOC could “marshal the resources” necessary to meet the deadline, but if the EEOC was unable to do so, then it could approach the court again in the next sixty days to discuss the matter further. On August 7, 2009, the court formally denied the EEOC’s second/renewed motion to amend the case management order.