In The Struggle Productions LLC v. Collins
- Vargas
- 1:24-cv-02776
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 23
In The Struggle Productions v. Collins: Judge Vargas lifted the stay, ordered answers, and set an initial conference after missed conferences.
In The Struggle Productions LLC, Roland Collins, and BSB Records, Inc.; the order particularly affects Collins as a pro se defendant and BSB Records, Inc., which must appear through counsel.
What happened
In The Struggle Productions LLC v. Collins, the court reassigned the case to Judge Jeannette A. Vargas after pro se Defendant Roland Collins missed a settlement conference and a telephone conference. Counsel for BSB Records, Inc. had not appeared, and the defendants had not responded to the plaintiff’s outreach.
The court lifted the stay and ordered Collins and BSB Records, Inc. to answer the complaint by January 28, 2025. It also reminded the parties that BSB Records, Inc. must appear through a lawyer and warned that failing to answer or participate could lead to a request for a default judgment.
Judge Vargas scheduled an initial pretrial conference for February 18, 2025, and required the parties to submit letters by February 11 about the case, defenses, jurisdiction, deadlines, discovery, and settlement. The order set procedures for moving the case forward but did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- In The Struggle Productions LLC v. Collins · No. 1:24-cv-02776
- Vargas
- Jan. 8, 2025
Background
The case was reassigned to United States District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas. Earlier orders had directed the parties to attend a settlement conference on November 21, 2024, and a telephone conference on January 6, 2025. The opinion states that pro se Defendant Roland Collins did not attend either conference. It also states that counsel for BSB Records, Inc. had not appeared and that the defendants had not responded to Plaintiff In The Struggle Productions LLC’s outreach.
Rulings and Case Schedule
The court lifted the stay on the case. It ordered Roland Collins and BSB Records, Inc. to file answers to the complaint by January 28, 2025. The court reminded the parties that BSB Records, Inc., as a corporation, may appear only through counsel. It warned that failure to answer could allow the plaintiff to move for a default judgment and that failure to participate could result in the loss of factual or legal defenses.
The court ordered counsel for the parties to appear at an initial pretrial conference on February 18, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. It directed the parties to confer about settlement and other matters covered by Rule 16 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Each party must submit a letter of no more than five pages by February 11, 2025, addressing the nature of the action and defenses, jurisdiction and venue, existing deadlines, outstanding motions, completed and needed discovery, prior settlement discussions, possible alternative dispute-resolution methods, and other information useful to moving the case toward settlement or trial.
Procedural Instructions
The order states that the court will establish a case schedule at the initial case-management conference. It explains that the court will generally allow six months from that conference to complete discovery and will set a deadline for summary-judgment motions after discovery closes, although the court will issue the actual schedule later. The court attached its individual rules for civil cases involving parties without lawyers and a discovery guide. It also described filing, service, discovery, conference, and extension procedures applicable to the parties, including procedures for Collins as a pro se litigant.
Effect of the Order
This is a case-management and scheduling order. The court did not decide the merits of In The Struggle Productions LLC’s claims or any defenses.
Read the full 23-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.