{"id":2925,"date":"2014-05-19T06:58:06","date_gmt":"2014-05-19T12:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=2925"},"modified":"2014-05-12T16:58:47","modified_gmt":"2014-05-12T22:58:47","slug":"judge-rejects-flimsy-excuses-re-expert-disclosure-deadlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/judge-rejects-flimsy-excuses-re-expert-disclosure-deadlines\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Rejects Flimsy Excuses Re: Expert Disclosure Deadlines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joshua Fruchter, Esq. – May 8, 2014<\/p>\n

Has an adversary ever offered up an outrageous excuse for missing a court-imposed deadline for disclosure of expert testimony? Was the judge indulgent, or did he\/she throw the book at opposing counsel? The strict enforcement of deadlines governing expert disclosures against a party with decidedly flimsy excuses for its tardiness was recently illustrated in Advanced Analytics, Inc. v. Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., 2014 WL 1243685 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 26, 2014) (\u201cAAI\u201d).<\/p>\n

The litigation in AAI had been pending for over nine years. The plaintiff had sued the defendant for allegedly misappropriating plaintiff’s trade secrets \u2014 mathematical models used to determine the present value of mortgage-backed securities with greater accuracy than existing methods. Due to the complexity of the subject matter, discovery dragged on for many years, and it was not until January 17, 2012, that the court fixed May 17, 2012 as the deadline for the plaintiff to submit all expert disclosures required under Rule 26(a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding the court\u2019s deadline, plaintiff attempted to serve a supplemental expert report from Dr. Jianqing Fan (the \u201cFan Report\u201d) on June 6, 2013 \u2014 more than a year after the May 17, 2012 deadline. Defendants moved to strike the Fan Report on the grounds that it was untimely and contained new information and opinions that were not within the scope of either parties’ prior expert disclosures. The court agreed and granted the defendants\u2019 motion.<\/p>\n

Undaunted, in opposition to defendants\u2019 subsequent motion for summary judgment, plaintiff incorporated the previously stricken Fan Report into its response. Defendants cried foul, arguing that inclusion of the Fan Report in plaintiff\u2019s opposition paper violated the deadline imposed by the court and Federal Rule 26, thus warranting preclusion of the Fan Report as evidence.<\/p>\n

The court once again agreed with the defendants. Citing the requirement in Federal Rule 26 to provide a \u201ccomplete statement of all opinions\u201d of an expert witness, and to supplement any such disclosures in a \u201ctimely manner,\u201d the Court noted that these rules are intended to \u201cprevent the practice of \u2018sandbagging\u2019 an opposing party with new evidence.\u201d The sanction for \u201csandbagging\u201d is spelled out in Federal Rule 37 \u2014 the party making an untimely disclosure of expert opinions is precluded from using those opinions as \u201cevidence on a motion, at a hearing, or at a trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be sure, the court considered mitigating factors that might prevent preclusion. However, it found that none of those factors applied here. For example, the opinions expressed in the Fan Report fell outside the scope of Dr. Fan\u2019s initial expert report. As such, the new material would require discovery to be reopened to afford defendants an opportunity to rebut the new opinions. After eight years of discovery, the Court was not about to allow that to happen.<\/p>\n

Several of the plaintiff\u2019s excuses for the untimely disclosures \u2013 all rejected by the Court \u2013 bordered on the comical (not quite \u201cthe dog ate our expert report,\u201d but close). For example, the plaintiff argued that the difficulty of the subject matter prevented timely disclosure of the Fan Report. The court agreed that the subject matter was difficult, but noted that after 8 years of discovery, plaintiff \u201chad more than enough time to get its expert disclosures in on time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plaintiff also contended that Dr. Fan is a \u201cvery, very busy [and] very, very expensive\u201d expert and, thus, plaintiff had only been in touch with him \u201ca few times\u201d preceding the close of discovery. The court\u2019s response stated the obvious \u2014 \u201cif a retained expert lacks the time to comply with the schedule set by the Court, the party should retain another expert.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, the court rejected as completely unfounded plaintiff\u2019s allegations that the defendants had committed fraud during discovery by destroying or withholding relevant evidence.<\/p>\n

Based on the foregoing, the court precluded the plaintiff from using the Fan Report in opposition to defendant\u2019s motion for summary judgment.<\/p>\n

The moral of the story is clear \u2013 compliance with court-imposed expert discovery deadlines is not optional, absent mitigating factors identified in the relevant caselaw. And to the extent such mitigating circumstances exist, they should be brought promptly to the court\u2019s attention. And the longer a case drags on, the less patience a court is likely to have for flimsy excuses for non-compliance.<\/p>\n

We invite you to share any \u201cwar stories\u201d you may have relating to non-compliance with expert discovery deadlines.<\/p>\n

via Judge Rejects Flimsy Excuses Re: Expert Disclosure Deadlines<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joshua Fruchter, Esq. – May 8, 2014 Has an adversary ever offered up an outrageous excuse for missing a court-imposed deadline for disclosure of expert testimony? Was the judge indulgent, or did he\/she throw the book at opposing counsel? The strict enforcement of deadlines governing expert disclosures against a party with decidedly flimsy excuses for… Continue reading Judge Rejects Flimsy Excuses Re: Expert Disclosure Deadlines<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[17,525],"class_list":["post-2925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expert-witness","tag-expert-witness-2","tag-federal-rule-26","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nJudge Rejects Flimsy Excuses Re: Expert Disclosure Deadlines - Advise & Consult, Inc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/judge-rejects-flimsy-excuses-re-expert-disclosure-deadlines\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge Rejects Flimsy Excuses Re: Expert Disclosure Deadlines - Advise & Consult, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Joshua Fruchter, Esq. – May 8, 2014 Has an adversary ever offered up an outrageous excuse for missing a court-imposed deadline for disclosure of expert testimony? 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