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If you’re litigating in the Southern District of Indiana, much of your time will be spent practicing in front of your federal magistrate judge. Here are practical and substantive insights from one such chamber:
1. Omit judicial signature and date lines from your proposed orders.
Judges apply unique signature and date stamps populated from proprietary court software. Chambers must manually delete proffered signature/date lines from the proposed orders that you are required to submit along with any motion. For one of the busiest districts in the nation, this administrative time adds up. Often, when a proposed order has too much legalese and includes date/signature stamps, we will forgo using the proposed order you submitted and write our own. And while we draft our own orders for complex issues, it helps us to use the parties’ proposed orders for routine motions like those to continue, withdraw, appear, etc. If we can’t use your proposed order for these routine motions, it creates an unnecessary inefficiency on both ends. You’ve spent time drafting the order, and we want to use your order. Confidently omit date and signature blocks, and you will help us move pleadings through chambers more quickly.
2. Be appropriately candid with your magistrate judge before and during a settlement conference and call if you want to discuss anything important beforehand.
Pre-conference submissions are important and kept strictly confidential. We study, analyze and prepare from them to give your case the best chance for settlement. Follow any pre-settlement conference instructions you’ve received from your magistrate judge and ask questions if you have them.
For example, we require a limited pre-settlement submission that includes a short summary of relevant facts. Too often, attorneys direct us to the fact section of their most recent dispositive motion. First, this kind of incorporation by reference doesn’t comply with our page limit. Second, the facts set forth in your client’s dispositive motion are not the same as the facts required for a confidential settlement submission. Tell us what facts matter to the case and how they impact your settlement position — and don’t ignore the facts that cut against you.
Sometimes lawyers refuse to reveal their settlement authority to the judge until the end of the settlement conference — to their client’s detriment. If you have settlement authority, the magistrate judge can be more effective during the conference if he or she is given that authority information early in the conference. And if, during preparation, you realize there is a serious impediment to settlement and that perhaps the conference should be canceled or delayed, call us. We will always appreciate it. In fact, call chambers ex parte if you wish to discuss settlement strategy or prospects.
Finally, be sure to have exchanged all important discovery in advance of the submission statements. Little is more frustrating from our perspective than conducting a settlement conference that is bottlenecked by an outstanding discovery issue. Either resolve it beforehand or ask to reschedule. But please don’t put us in the position of spending half a day either chasing down documents or discussing implications of discovery that hasn’t been exchanged yet.
These pre-conference efforts matter and help everyone involved. You may be surprised to learn how much time your federal magistrate judge and his or her staff put into preparing for your settlement conference. Try to make the best use of our time. After all, it’s free mediation from experienced mediators for you and your client.
3. Does your case involve motions to seal? Study L.R. 5-11 and prepare detailed proposed orders.
In the Southern District of Indiana, motions to seal are governed by L.R. 5-11. Any proposed order should include specific instructions with references to docket numbers. Even if the court issues its own order, your proposed order is studied to ensure the court is discussing and/or sealing the right information. Avoid referring to any document generally. Be specific and consistent in all sealing filings and responses. Motions to seal are subject to Seventh Circuit review, and the court appreciates all exacting efforts to make sure we can effectively analyze and decide these requests.
4. Try to avoid filing separate case management plans.
The court is prepared to navigate parties through the lifespan of a case (no matter how thorny), but it isn’t a good sign when lawyers can’t agree on initial case management dates. Collegiality and creative compromise go a long way with the court. Pick up the phone and have a professional conversation with one another about any disputes regarding the initial pretrial conference or CMP. It may take several tries for the parties to reach an agreement on dates; please don’t give up after one attempt.
5. Did you meet and confer? (Did you really?)
Do you have a discovery dispute? We understand. They happen. Discovery is a difficult process, which is why magistrate judges offer both guidance and formal rulings. But emailing with opposing counsel is not a meet and confer. You must talk on the phone (or meet in person) and make a good faith effort to compromise. And if the first try doesn’t work, we appreciate when you try again. If you still can’t resolve the discovery dispute, reach out to chambers for further instructions before filing any motion to compel.•
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Garcia is a U.S. magistrate judge for the Southern District of Indiana. Hetzel was a litigation associate at Dinsmore & Shohl before clerking for Judge Garcia. She currently is a judicial law clerk to state Supreme Court Judge Mark Massa.
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