(a) Trial Briefs. Whether to submit a trial brief is within the discretion of the parties,
but any brief must be filed in CM/ECF and simultaneously served on all other
parties.
(b) Motion Practice. Any written communication with the court that is intended to be
an application for relief or other action by the court must be presented by a motion
in the form prescribed by this rule.
(1) Applicability. The provisions of this rule apply to all written motions in
civil actions.
(2) Filing, Deadlines, Proposed Orders. Any motion, response, rebuttal, and
supporting exhibits, including memorandum briefs in support, must be
filed. All affidavits, 28 U.S.C. § 1746 declarations, and other supporting
documents and exhibits, excluding the memorandum brief, must be filed as
exhibits to the motion, response, or rebuttal to which they relate. The
memorandum brief must be filed as a separate docket item from the motion
or response and the exhibits. All supporting exhibits must be denominated
in the court’s electronic filing system by both an exhibit letter or number
and a meaningful description. Further, all supporting exhibits not already of
record and cited in the motion, response, or rebuttal by docket entry, must
normally be filed under the same docket entry and denominated separately
in the court’s electronic filing system as exhibits to the motion, response, or
rebuttal to which they relate, unless doing so is not practicable, in which
case supporting exhibits may be filed as separate docket item attachments,
associated by the docket number of the motion, response, or rebuttal to
which they relate. Counsel must file a memorandum brief as a separate
docket item from the motion or response to which it relates and must not
make the memorandum brief an exhibit to a motion or response, except in
the case of a motion for leave to submit the referenced memorandum brief.
If leave of court is required under FED. R. CIV. P. 15, a proposed amended
pleading must be an exhibit to a motion for leave to file the pleading, and,
if the motion is granted, the movant must file the amended pleading as a
separately docketed item within seven days from entry of the order granting
the motion.
(A) Affirmative defenses must be raised by motion. Although the
affirmative defenses may be enumerated in the answer, the court
will not recognize a motion included within the body of the answer,
but only those raised by a separate filing.
(B) Other than discovery motions under Rule 37, a motion may not
exceed four pages, excluding exhibits, may contain only the
grounds for the request and may not contain legal argument or
citations to case law or other secondary authority.
(C) A party must file a discovery motion sufficiently in advance of the
discovery deadline to allow response to the motion, ruling by the
court, and time to effectuate the court’s order before the discovery
deadline.
(D) Unless otherwise ordered by the case management order, all case-
dispositive motions and motions challenging an opposing party’s
expert must be filed no later than 14 calendar days after the
discovery deadline.
(E) Motions in limine other than motions challenging another party’s
expert must be filed no later than 21 calendar days before the
pretrial conference, and all responses must be filed no later than 14
calendar days before the pretrial conference.
(F) A proposed order must be submitted to the judge for any motion
that may be heard ex parte or is to be granted by consent. If the
motion is referred to a magistrate judge, the proposed order must be
submitted to the magistrate judge. The addresses for the district
judges’ and for the magistrate judges’ chambers appear in the
courts’ Administrative Procedures for Electronic Case Filings.
(3) Responses
(A) A response to a motion, all affidavits, 28 U.S.C. § 1746
declarations, the response memorandum, and other supporting
materials, including any objections, must be filed of record. Within
the time allowed for response, the opposing party must either
respond to the motion or notify the court of its intent not to respond.
(B) A separate response must be filed as to each separately docketed
motion.
(C) A response to a motion may not include a counter-motion in the
same document. Any motion must be an item docketed separately
from a response.
(D) A response to a motion may not be included in the body of a
pleading, but rather should be a separately docketed item
denominated in the record as a response and should be associated
by docket number with the motion to which it responds.
(E) If a party fails to respond to any motion, other than a dispositive
motion, within the time allotted, the court may grant the motion as
unopposed.
(4) Memorandum Briefs; Documents Required with Motions; Time Limits;
Failure to Submit Required Documents; Motions Not Reurged. At the time
the motion is served, other than motions or applications that may be heard
ex parte or those involving necessitous or urgent matters, counsel for
movant must file a memorandum brief in support of the motion. Counsel
for respondent must, within 14 days after service of movant’s motion and
memorandum brief, file a response and memorandum brief in support of
the response. Counsel for movant desiring to file a rebuttal may do so
within seven days after the service of the respondent’s response and
memorandum brief. A party must make any request for an extension of
time in writing to the judge who will decide the motion. Failure to timely
submit the required motion documents may result in the denial of the
motion. A pending non-dispositive motion, not reurged after discovery has
been concluded and before the motion deadline, may be deemed moot and
denied by operation of this rule.
(5) Length and Form of Memorandum Briefs. Movant’s original and rebuttal
memorandum briefs together may not exceed a total of 35 pages, and
respondent’s memorandum brief may not exceed 35 pages.
(A) Paper Size, Line Spacing, and Margins. All memorandum briefs
must be on 8 ½ by 11 inch paper. The text must be double-spaced,
but quotations may be indented and single-spaced. Headings and
footnotes may be single-spaced. Margins must be at least 1 inch on
all four sides. Page numbers may be placed in the margins, but no
text may appear there.
(B) Typeface. Either a proportionally spaced or a monospaced face may
be used. A proportionally spaced face must include serifs, but sans-
serif type may be used in headings and captions. Text must be 12-
point or larger, except that footnotes may be 11-point or larger.
(C) Type Styles. All memorandum briefs must be set in a plain, roman
style, although italics, highlighting or boldface may be used for
emphasis. Case names must be italicized or underlined.
(6) Notice and Hearings
(A) The court will decide motions without a hearing or oral argument
unless otherwise ordered by the court on its own motion or, in its
discretion, upon written request made by counsel in an easily
discernible manner on the face of the motion or response.
(B) An evidentiary hearing or oral argument, where allowed, will be set
at a time and place convenient to the judge. The court may, in its
discretion, hear oral argument by electronic means.
(7) Priority. The court will give priority to discovery motions, discovery
appeals, immunity defense motions, motions to remand, and other
jurisdictional motions.
(8) Urgent or Necessitous Matters. When the motion relates to an urgent or
necessitous matter, counsel for the movant must contact the courtroom
deputy, or other staff member designated by the judge, and arrange a
definite time and place for the motion to be heard. In such cases, counsel
for movant must file a written notice to all other parties of the time and
place fixed by the court for the hearing and must serve all documents upon
other parties. A motion filed under this rule must be styled as an
“URGENT AND NECESSITOUS MOTION.” Upon receipt of the motion,
the court in its discretion may direct counsel to submit memorandum briefs
for the court’s consideration.
Unless a party files a motion for a protective order to limit the scope or
quash the taking of a deposition within seven days of the date of the notice
of deposition, the motion will not be considered urgent or necessitous.
(9) Court Reporters. If the hearing of a motion requires the presence of a court
reporter, the party requesting a court reporter must obtain prior approval
from the office of the district or magistrate judge before whom the motion
is noticed.
(10) Non-Dispositive Motions. All non-dispositive motions must advise the
court whether there is opposition to the motion.
(11) Untimely Motions. Any non-dispositive motion served beyond the motion
deadline imposed in the case management order may be denied solely
because the motion is not timely served.
(c) Corporate Disclosure Statement. A non-governmental corporate party must file a
statement identifying all of its parent corporations and listing any publicly held
company that owns 10% or more of the party’s stock. The Corporate Disclosure
Statement must be filed as a separate pleading with the party’s initial pleading.
Each party must supplement the statement within a reasonable time of any change
in the disclosure information.
