Ford v. WSP USA, Inc.

Background

The parties filed a joint status letter on September 25, 2020, reporting ongoing discovery disputes. The letter also stated that Plaintiff anticipated filing a pre-motion letter about conditional certification of a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) collective.

The Case Management Plan set September 11, 2020, as the deadline for completing all fact discovery. The court stated that no timely request to extend that deadline had been made.

Orders

The court ordered that no additional fact discovery would be permitted. It reminded the parties that the deadline for completing expert discovery was October 26, 2020.

The court also directed the parties to meet and confer by October 5, 2020, about possibly stipulating to conditional certification and the form of notice. Conditional certification is the preliminary step addressed under the more lenient standard applicable before any final certification. The order stated that Defendant retained all rights to object to final certification under the more demanding standard that would apply at that later stage.

Plaintiff was ordered to file any pre-motion letter anticipating a motion for conditional certification by October 5, 2020. Defendant’s response was due by October 8, 2020. The court scheduled a conference for October 15, 2020, at 10:40 a.m. to discuss Plaintiff’s proposed motion and stated that the conference would be canceled if no pre-motion letter was filed.

Disposition

This order addressed discovery and the schedule for a possible FLSA conditional-certification motion. It did not grant or deny conditional certification.