STANDARD PRELIMINARY ORDER FOR ALL CIVIL MATTERS
To facilitate efficient disposition of motions and prompt resolution of
disputes, the Court supplements and modifies the Local Rules as follows. It is
ORDERED that:
1. The Court enforces the requirements of the Local Rules, as modified
and supplemented herein. Spacing, margin, and font constraints are mandatory,
as are word limits. Legal arguments require citation to legal authority; factual
assertions unsupported by citation to specific evidence in the record will be
disregarded; and a citation to a multi-page exhibit or to a pleading or brief must
contain a pin cite to the specific page and, for exhibits or pleadings and where
possible, the line or paragraph number containing the cited material. To the extent
a party incorporates by reference arguments in other briefs, the word limit for the
incorporating brief is correspondingly decreased.
2. The parties are reminded to e-mail all proposed orders to the
appropriate Judge’s email address as specified in the NCMD CM/ECF
Administrative Policies and Procedures Manual.
3. Proposed stipulated protective orders should not include any riders,
including agreements to be bound by the terms of the Order, as the Order speaks
for itself.
4. The parties shall comply with L.R. 5.1. Absent a specific request from
the Court, paper copies are not required for motions or briefs.
5. References to pleadings, briefs, exhibits, and other docketed materials
shall reference the CM/EMF docket entry number and page number.
6. If a party has filed a document, a deposition, or other evidentiary
material as an exhibit in support of or opposition to a motion, that exhibit should
not be filed again absent a specific reason. The previously-filed exhibit can be
referenced and incorporated by a description and its associated CM/EMF docket
entry number.
7. The Court discourages motions to seal. Compliance with L.R. 5.4 and
L.R. 5.5 is mandatory. A party seeking to file a document under seal, whether
wholly or partially, has the burden to establish, both as to the facts and the law,
why public access should be denied. Statements in briefs do not constitute evidence
and are ordinarily insufficient to meet this burden. An affidavit from a
knowledgeable witness explaining what is confidential and why is required. The
Court will deny overly broad or unsupported motions with prejudice. Patent cases
are no exception.
8. When filing a motion to seal, the filing party shall, in the unredacted
filed under seal, highlight in yellow all of the information subject to the sealing
motion for ease in identification.
9. If the parties, in their Joint Rule 26(f) Report, identify a chosen
discovery track (standard, complex, exceptional) but request more time to
complete discovery than L.R. 26.1 allots for that track, the Report must contain
specific justification for that additional requested time. Further, the parties shall
not request the exceptional discovery track without specific justification.
