Free Joint Status Report - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:04-cv-00557-GWM

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS ELLIS C. BLAND, et al., Plaintiffs, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant. ) ) ) ) ) ) No. 04-557C ) ) (Judge George W. Miller) ) ) )

JOINT STATUS REPORT AND DEFENDANT'S UNOPPOSED MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE SINGLE STATUS REPORT IN LIEU OF MULTIPLE STATUS REPORTS Defendant, the United States, respectfully submits this joint status report, upon behalf of the parties, apprising the Court of the status of the ADR proceedings in the abovereferenced matter. Further, for the reasons set forth below,

defendant respectfully requests that the Court grant leave for the parties to file a single status report, now and in the future, in lieu of the multiple status reports currently required, concerning the status of the ongoing ADR proceedings. Counsel for plaintiffs in this and the other matters does not oppose this motion. MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE SINGLE STATUS REPORT The following cases, which are all related, currently are stayed pending ADR proceedings before Judge Hewitt: Bland v. United States, Fed. Cl. No. 04-557C; Busigo v. United States, Fed. Cl. No. 05-422; Case v. United States, Fed. Cl. No. 05-687C; Dupuis v. United States, Fed. Cl. No. 06-82C; Fleury v. United

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States, Fed. Cl. No. 06-156; Nokell v. United States, Fed. Cl. No. 06-335; and Smith v. United States, Fed. Cl. No. 06-592. each case, this Court directed the parties to file a status report every 30 days regarding the status of the ADR proceedings. The ADR proceedings in the above-referenced cases are being conducted in a consolidated fashion. represented by the same firm. Further, all plaintiffs are In

Therefore, the text of each joint

status report has been and, we expect, will continue to be, identical to the status reports in all of other the listed cases. At present, there are seven cases pending. Each month, the

parties have prepared and electronically filed multiple, virtually identical, status reports. time-consuming. This has proven to be very

We respectfully suggest that a single status

report would adequately serve to keep the Court up-to-date on the status of the ADR proceedings, would eliminate the need for multiple filings, and would conserve the resources of the parties and the Court. Accordingly, we respectfully request that the Court grant leave for the parties to file a single status report each month apprising the Court of the status of the ADR process. Because

Bland was the first case filed, and because the overwhelming majority of the plaintiffs are parties to that matter, we further request that a proposed single status report be filed under the Bland caption each month. Finally, the parties have discussed

consolidating these cases and anticipate that, to the extent they

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decide to do so, a consolidation motion will be filed in the near future. STATUS REPORT Judge Hewitt, the settlement judge, has rescheduled the initial ADR conference for November 15, 2006. Plaintiff recently

transmitted their ADR submissions to Judge Hewitt and counsel for the Government. 2006. The Government's submissions are due November 9,

It is the hope of the parties that these submissions will

enable the parties to engage in substantive settlement discussions at the ADR conference. Indeed, Judge Hewitt has

indicated that she has set aside that entire day for the ADR proceedings. The parties will provide additional details when

they file their next status report. Plaintiffs' counsel has read this status report, agrees with its contents, and consents to it being filed upon behalf of the parties.

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Respectfully submitted, PETER D. KEISLER Assistant Attorney General DAVID M. COHEN Director s/ Steven J. Gillingham STEVEN J. GILLINGHAM Assistant Director s/ Richard P. Schroeder RICHARD P. SCHROEDER Trial Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Department of Justice Attn: Classification Unit 8th Floor 1100 L Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 Tele: (202) 305-7562 Facsimile: (202) 305-3291 email: [email protected] Attorneys for Defendant October 18, 2006

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CERTIFICATE OF FILING I hereby certify under penalty of perjury that on this 18th day of October 2006, the "JOINT STATUS REPORT AND DEFENDANT'S UNOPPOSED MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE SINGLE STATUS REPORT IN LIEU OF MULTIPLE STATUS REPORTS," was filed electronically. I understand that notice of this filing will be sent to all parties by operation of the Court's electronic filing system. Parties may access this filing through the Court's system. s/Richard P. Schroeder