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, No. 3:24-cv-05420-BJR Plaintiff, STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER v. TO CONTINUE TRIAL AND AMEND 10 CASE SCHEDULE BY 90 DAYS GEICO ADVANTAGE INSURANCE COMPANY, 12 Defendant.

I. STIPULATED MOTION 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).

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

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, (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. Geico received Plaintiff’s executed HIPAA waiver on March 31, 2025. Plaintiff has additionally requested the parties enter into a Stipulated Protective Order for Plaintiff’s medical records. The Parties are currently discussing the scope of the Protective Order and anticipate filing a Stipulation with the Court within the next few days. Plaintiff’s medical records are additionally voluminous and exceed the amount standard in motor vehicle accidents.

14 Additionally, as a result of Plaintiff’s written discovery responses, Geico has identified 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.

22 In light of the foregoing, good cause exists for a continuance. Currently, the deadline to produce Expert Testimony under FRCP 26(a)(2) April 28, 2025, and the deadline for the completion of Discovery is May 29, 2025, 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 June 26, 2025. As the parties jointly require further discovery, neither party is able to properly and meaningfully prepare dispositive motions by this deadline.

6 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.

9 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 April 28, 2025 July 28, 2025 FRCP 26(a)(2) due Discovery completed by May 29, 2025 August 27, 2025 All dispositive motions must be filed by June 26, 2025 September 24, 2025 All motions in limine must be filed by September 15, 2025 December 15, 2025 Joint Pretrial Statement October 27, 2025 January 26, 2026 Pretrial Conference November 10, 2025 February 9, 2026 Trial Date December 1, 2025 February 23, 2026 // 2 DATED this 1st day of April 2025.

3 LEGAL RESOLUTIONS PLLC 4 /s/ Josias Flynn__________ Josias Flynn, WSBA #44130 5 1201 Pacific Ave, Suite 600 Tacoma, WA 98402 6 253-203-3156 [email protected] 7 Counsel for Plaintiff 8 LETHER LAW GROUP 9 /s/Thomas Lether Thomas Lether, WSBA #18089 10 /s/Sam Colito Sam Colito, WSBA #42529 11 /s/Ellen McGraw ________________ Ellen McGraw, WSBA #60240 12 1848 Westlake Ave N., Suite 100 Seattle, WA 98109 13 P: 206-467-5444 / F: 206-467-5544 [email protected] 14 [email protected] [email protected] 15 Counsel for GEICO Advantage Insurance Company

1 III. ORDER The Court having reviewed the above Stipulated Motion, it is hereby ORDERED that the case schedule is amended as follows: EVENT DATE Reports from expert witnesses under FRCP July 28, 2025 26(a)(2) due Discovery completed by August 27, 2025 All dispositive motions must be filed by September 24, 2025 All motions in limine must be filed by December 15, 2025 Joint Pretrial Statement January 26, 2026 Pretrial Conference February 9, 2026 Length of Jury Trial 5 Days Trial Date February 23, 2026 12 DATED this 18th day of April 2025.

A 15 THE HONORABLE BARBARA J. ROTHSTEIN Presented By: LEGAL RESOLUTIONS PLLC /s/ Josias Flynn__________ Josias Flynn, WSBA #44130 LETHER LAW GROUP 1201 Pacific Ave, Suite 600 Tacoma, WA 98402 /s/Thomas Lether 253-203-3156 Thomas Lether, WSBA #18089 [email protected] /s/Sam Colito Counsel for Plaintiff Sam Colito, WSBA #42529 22 /s/Ellen McGraw ________________ Ellen McGraw, WSBA #60240 23 1848 Westlake Ave N., Suite 100 Seattle, WA 98109 P: 206-467-5444 / F: 206-467-5544 [email protected] [email protected] Counsel for GEICO Advantage Insurance [email protected] Company 1 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 2 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

11 By: [ ] First Class Mail [X] Email/ECF [ ] Legal Messenger

DATED this 1st day of April 2025 at Seattle, Washington.

14 /s/ Jessica Bowman_______ Jessica Bowman | Paralegal