UPDATED 11/22/13, 3p
Earlier this week, members of the CBA’s Federal Practice Section were informed that the Initial Discovery Protocols in Employment Cases are now being used by all the judges in the district.
As such, lawyers and clients should now expect to deal with them in various types of discrimination cases filed in federal
UPDATED
A few weeks ago, the U.S. Courts’ publication “The Third Branch” updated the public on a pilot program that has been going on for a while that established initial discovery protocols that employers and employees need to follow in discrimination cases, without the need for case-specific discovery requests.
(I was tipped off to this by Alli Gerkman, who is the Online Content Manager of IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System. The IAALS worked with a group of employment lawyers to develop these protocols. My thanks to Alli for the detailed information and I recommend their website for further details.)
Nice article, you may be thinking, but so what? It’s just a pilot? Well, as the article indicates, “any district judge may choose to adopt the protocols, which do not require changes to local rules.”
The pilot is getting strong support; the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules has encouraged judges to join the pilot. As the article goes on to note, “Judge Jeremy Fogel, Director of the Federal Judicial Center, sent a memo to all chief district judges, advising them of the availability of the employment protocols.”
Continue Reading Employment Discrimination Protocols for Discovery: They’re Coming