Nebieridze v. Relo, LLC
- Stewart Aaron
- 1:23-cv-04956
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Nebieridze v. Relo, Judge Aaron set deadlines for consent and a joint filing needed before reviewing the proposed settlement.
The plaintiffs, defendants, and their attorneys must meet the consent and settlement-filing deadlines if they wish to proceed with Judge Aaron’s review of the proposed settlement.
What happened
In Nebieridze v. Relo, both sides accepted a proposal intended to fully resolve the case and agreed that Judge Stewart D. Aaron would review the settlement. They had not yet signed the required consent form allowing him to conduct that review.
The court ordered the parties to sign and return the consent form by April 11, 2025, if they wanted Judge Aaron to review the settlement. It also required them to file a joint letter or motion by April 18 addressing whether the settlement was fair and reasonable, including the claims, defenses, possible damages, negotiation process, and attorney fees.
Judge Stewart D. Aaron did not announce approval or rejection of the settlement in this order. Instead, he set requirements and deadlines for the parties to provide consent and information needed for the settlement review.
The detailed version
- Nebieridze v. Relo, LLC · No. 1:23-cv-04956
- Stewart Aaron
- Apr. 4, 2025
Background
The plaintiffs are Shalva Nebieridze and Levan Janikashvili, individually and on behalf of others similarly situated. The defendants are Relo, LLC, doing business as Relo Moving & Storage, and Ariel Bornstein. After a settlement conference, both sides accepted Judge Stewart D. Aaron’s proposal to fully resolve the case and agreed that he would review the settlement.
Consent to Jurisdiction
Judge Aaron had told the parties that they needed to sign a form consenting to his jurisdiction before he could review the settlement. The parties had not yet signed and returned that form. The court ordered them to do so by April 11, 2025, if they wished to proceed with his review of the settlement.
Required Settlement Filing
The court also ordered the parties to file a joint letter or motion by April 18, 2025, addressing whether the settlement was fair and reasonable. The filing must discuss the claims and defenses, the defendants’ potential monetary exposure and the basis for calculating it, the strengths and weaknesses of the plaintiffs’ case and defendants’ defenses, reasons for any difference between the potential value of the claims and the settlement amount, the litigation and negotiation process, and other relevant issues, including whether a judgment would be collectible.
The filing must also explain the attorney-fee arrangement, attach the retainer agreement, provide information about the attorneys’ hours and relevant experience, and include a copy of the settlement agreement.
Disposition
The order set deadlines and information requirements for potential settlement approval. It did not state that the settlement was approved or rejected. The order was issued by Judge Stewart D. Aaron, United States Magistrate Judge.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.