Gannon v. GEICO Insurance Agency LLC

Honorable Barbara J. Rothstein

6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 7 AT SEATTLE MELISSA GANNON, 8 No. 3:24-cv-05420-BJR Plaintiff, STIPULATED MOTION AND v. 10 AMENDED ORDER TO CONTINUE GEICO ADVANTAGE INSURANCE TRIAL AND AMEND CASE COMPANY, SCHEDULE BY 90 DAYS 12 Defendant.

13 I. STIPULATED MOTION 14 The parties, by and through their undersigned counsel of record, have conferred and hereby stipulate and jointly request that the Court continue the trial date and amend the case schedule (ECF No. 15) by 90 days pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. Rule 6 and LCR 10(g).

17 II. LEGAL AUTHORITY A. Applicable Legal Standard 19 A [case] schedule may be modified only for good cause and with the judge’s consent.

20 Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(4); see also LCR 16(b)(6) (“A schedule may be modified only for good cause and with the judge’s consent.”). The decision to modify a scheduling order is within the broad discretion of the district court. See Johnson v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 607 (9th Cir. 1992).

1 B. Good Cause Exists to Extend the Trial Date and Pre-Trial Deadlines 2 Good cause exists for a continuance. On November 25, 2024, Geico propounded its first set of interrogatories and requests for production to Plaintiff in order to obtain further information regarding the subject accident, Plaintiff’s alleged injuries and treatment, and the factual basis for Plaintiff’s claims. Due to Plaintiff’s counsel’s trial schedule, Plaintiff was unable to provide responses until January 28, 2025. Further, Plaintiff intends to supplement this discovery and has agreed to execute a HIPAA waiver so that Geico may obtain Plaintiff’s medical records for consideration.

9 Additionally, as a result of Plaintiff’s written discovery responses, Geico is now able to identify intended expert witnesses and is in the process of retaining the necessary experts. Geico anticipates it may request Plaintiff submit to an Independent Medical Examination as Plaintiff alleges the need for further treatment. Plaintiff also intends to conduct further discovery. Ms. Gannon currently works for a classified department within Boeing and as a result of her work schedule, anticipates needing more time to find a mutually agreeable date for the Independent Medical Examination. Plaintiff also intends to designate additional experts but has had trouble contacting these individuals.

17 In light of the foregoing, good cause exists for a continuance. Currently, the deadline to produce Expert Testimony under FRCP 26(a)(2) is February 24, 2025, and the deadline for the completion of Discovery is March 31, 2025. As discussed above, both parties believe they require additional time to conduct discovery, retain experts and conduct depositions of both lay and the disclosed expert witnesses depositions. Further, the deadline to file dispositive motions is currently April 25, 2025. As the parties jointly require further discovery, neither party is able to properly and meaningfully prepare dispositive motions by this deadline.

1 This is the first request for a continuance. Further, as this request is being made jointly by the parties, a short extension presents no prejudice to either party. Instead, a brief extension provides both parties the benefit of fully investigating the claims and defenses in this action in the spirit of the discovery process.

5 In light of both parties’ desire to conduct more discovery, retain experts and obtain information regarding the matter in order to compose dispositive motions, good cause for a continuance exists. An amendment to the case schedule would allow the parties to conduct discovery, produce all necessary expert and rebuttal testimony, and consider any potential discovery motions. For these reasons, the parties respectfully move the Court to amend the case schedule and extend the trial date in this matter as follows: EVENT CURRENT DATE PROPOSED DATE Reports from expert witnesses under February 24, 2025 April 28, 2025 FRCP 26(a)(2) due Discovery completed by March 31, 2025 May 29, 2025 All dispositive motions must be filed by April 25, 2025 June 26, 2025 All motions in limine must be filed by August 13, 2025 September 15, 2025 Joint Pretrial Statement August 25, 2025 October 27, 2025 Pretrial Conference September 9, 2025 November 10, 2025 Length of Jury Trial 5 Days 5 Days 20 DATED this 19th day of February 2025.

21 LEGAL RESOLUTIONS PLLC 22 /s/ Josias Flynn__________ Josias Flynn, WSBA #44130 23 1201 Pacific Ave, Suite 600 Tacoma, WA 98402 1 253-203-3156 [email protected] 2 Counsel for Plaintiff 3 LETHER LAW GROUP 4 /s/Thomas Lether Thomas Lether, WSBA #18089 5 /s/Sam Colito Sam Colito, WSBA #42529 6 /s/Ellen McGraw ________________ Ellen McGraw, WSBA #60240 7 1848 Westlake Ave N., Suite 100 Seattle, WA 98109 8 P: 206-467-5444 / F: 206-467-5544 [email protected] 9 [email protected] [email protected] 10 Counsel for GEICO Advantage Insurance Company

1 III. ORDER 2 The Court having reviewed the above Stipulated Motion, it is hereby ORDERED that the following deadlines are extended 90 days and the case schedule is amended as follows: EVENT DATE Reports from expert witnesses under FRCP April 28, 2025 26(a)(2) due Discovery completed by May 29, 2025 All dispositive motions must be filed by June 26, 2025 All motions in limine must be filed by September 15, 2025 Joint Pretrial Statement October 27, 2025 Pretrial Conference November 10, 2025 Trial1 December 1, 2025 Length of Jury Trial 5 Days DATED this 20th day of February 2025.

16 A THE HONORABLE BARBARA J. ROTHSTEIN The previous version of this order omitted the revised trial date.

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE The undersigned hereby certifies under the penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that on this date I caused to be served in the manner noted below a true and correct copy of the foregoing on the following party(ies): Josias Flynn, WSBA No. 44130 Legal Resolutions PLLC 1201 Pacific Ave, Suite 600 Tacoma, WA 98402 253-203-3156 [email protected] Counsel for Plaintiff By: [ ] First Class Mail [X] Email/ECF [ ] Legal Messenger DATED this 19th day of February 2025 at Seattle, Washington.

s/ Devon Sheehan_______ 14 Devon Sheehan | Paralegal