Matthew Channon v. Liberation Distribution, LLC; and Insperity, Inc., d/b/a Administaff Companies, Inc. GP Ltd.

Summary

The United States District Court for the District of New Mexico grants in part and denies in part defendants’ motion to compel disclosures under D.N.M. LR-Civ. 26.3(d). The Court holds that Plaintiff must disclose healthcare providers whose information he may use to support his claims and provide unmodified medical-record authorizations for those providers, but rejects both Plaintiff’s proposed restrictions and Defendants’ request for disclosure of all providers regardless of intended use. The Court also grants Defendants’ motion to extend pretrial deadlines.

Holdings

1. When a party's physical or mental medical condition is at issue, D.N.M. LR-Civ. 26.3(d) requires disclosure of providers treated during the five years preceding the occurrence identified in the pleadings through the present only if the party may use information from that provider to support the party's claims or defenses.
2. For each provider whose information Plaintiff may use to support his claims, Plaintiff must execute a general medical and mental-health-record authorization in the format provided in Appendix A, without additional restrictions or modifications.
3. Good cause existed to extend the unexpired pretrial deadlines because Defendants needed Plaintiff's authorizations and medical records before preparing and disclosing their expert report.

Questions Presented

1. How should D.N.M. LR-Civ. 26.3(d) be interpreted when a party's physical or mental medical condition is at issue and the rule requires disclosure of information the party may use to support claims or defenses?
2. Whether Plaintiff must provide healthcare-provider information and medical-record authorizations for all providers within the rule's five-year period or only for providers whose information Plaintiff may use to support his claims.
3. Whether Plaintiff may modify the Appendix A medical-record authorization forms with temporal, subject-matter, redaction, or privilege-log restrictions.
4. Whether good cause existed to extend the pending pretrial deadlines.

Disposition

other