Summary
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California orders the parties in this prisoner civil-rights action to exchange specified documents and evidence without awaiting a discovery request. The order addresses materials concerning exhaustion, disciplinary proceedings, investigations, use of force, medical records, housing or transfer, recordings, photographs, and litigation-support materials, and establishes procedures and deadlines for objections and later-produced evidence.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the court should require the parties to exchange specified documents and evidence relevant to the prisoner civil-rights claims without awaiting a discovery request.
- What deadlines and procedures govern production, objections, responses, and later-acquired responsive materials.
Holdings
- The court ordered each party to produce, within sixty days after service of the order, specified relevant documents and evidence in that party's possession, custody, or control, unless already produced or properly objected to.
- A party that later obtains covered documents or evidence must provide them within thirty days; objections must be filed and served within the specified sixty-day or thirty-day period, and responses to objections must be filed within fourteen days.
Key quotations
“To secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive disposition of this action, the Court will direct that certain documents that are central to the dispute be promptly produced.” (at 1)
“There is universal acceptance in the federal courts that, in carrying out this mandate, a district court has the authority to enter pretrial case management and discovery orders designed to ensure that the relevant issues to be tried are identified, that the parties have an opportunity to engage in appropriate discovery and that the parties are adequately and timely prepared so that the trial can proceed efficiently and intelligibly.” (at 1, n.1)
Factual background
The complaint concerns alleged prison incidents involving, among other things, use of force, disciplinary proceedings, grievances, medical conditions, and possible transfer or administrative-segregation placement. The order does not resolve the merits of those allegations; it identifies categories of documents potentially relevant to the claims and defenses, including exhaustion materials, investigative records, medical records, videos, and photographs.
Procedural history
Plaintiff filed a prisoner civil-rights action against Bryan Phillips and other defendants. The district court issued this pretrial discovery order directing document production, permitting objections, and establishing response deadlines.