Defendant's Attorney: Reed Lock Russell, Sarah Smith-Clevenger for Unite US
Lisa McKellar Poursine for Inspirity Peo Services, L.P.
Description: Miami, Florida civil rights lawyer represented Plaintiff who sued Defendants on Americans with Disabilities Act violation theories.
Plaintiff filed suit on November 15, 2022. The Court issued its Order Requiring a Joint Scheduling Report on November 21, 2022. Plaintiff filed an Amended Complaint on January 31, 2023. The parties filed their Joint Scheduling Report on February 17, 2023. In their Joint Scheduling Report, the parties did not provide a proposed deadline to provide expert witness reports.
On March 16, 2023, the parties appeared in person at the Rule 16 Scheduling Conference to discuss their proposed scheduling dates, the nature of this case, to establish case management plan to ensure a speedy, cost-efficient resolution of the case and set the pretrial deadlines and trial period for this case. Following this conference, the Court entered the Order Setting Trial Date, Pretrial Deadlines, and Referral to Magistrate. That order set April 21, 2023 as the deadline for the parties to exchange expert reports. In an email to Defendant, Plaintiff stated she would have an expert report prepared and provided to Defendant prior to April 21, 2023-the original court ordered deadline- as well as all documents in her possession relating to her disability.
On April 12, 2023, Defendant moved for an extension of the Expert Discovery Deadline because Plaintiffs return from foreign travel would be after the discovery deadline thus necessitating the extension for her to undergo the independent medical examination. DE 32 at 3-4. Based on these representations, on April 13, 2023, the Court extended to May 12, 2023 deadline to provide expert witness reports, required the Plaintiff to attend the IME at the date scheduled, to certify that she did attend, and to provide responses to Defendant's outstanding discovery requests.
On April 17, 2023, Defendant asserted that Plaintiff had not complied with the Court's April 13th order in that she had not provided the responses to Defendant's discovery requests for documentation supporting her disability claims. DE 37; DE 38. On April 21, 2023, the parties returned to court for a second time to address the issues relating to documents Plaintiff possessed to support her disability claim. At this status conference, Plaintiff did not raise any questions or request any clarification regarding the content or timing requirement of an expert witness report set in the Court's Order Setting Trial Date, Pretrial Deadlines, and Referral to Magistrate.
On April 21, 2023, Plaintiff served an expert witness list that listed two speech pathologist experts: Lydia Reid and Mark Witkind. DE 44-4. On May 12, 2023, Plaintiff also served Defendant with an expert report from Dr. Mark Witkind. DE 48-1. On May 25, 2023, Plaintiff provided Defendant with a “supplemental” witness report, which consisted solely of Dr. Witkind's curriculum vitae. DE 44-11. To date, Plaintiff has not provided Defendant with a report or curriculum vitae for Dr. Lydia Reid. Additionally, Plaintiff has not produced any documentation regarding her wage loss claim, such as tax returns or 1099s, and admitted at her deposition that she has not filed taxes since 2012. DE 44 at 13. Defendant thereafter filed its motion to strike Plaintiffs expert witness disclosure and Dr. Witkind's report as deficient under Fed. R. of Civ. P. 26(a)(2)(B), as well as to strike Plaintiffs disability and wage loss claim, or in the alternative, compel Plaintiff to produce all bank records from 2021 to the present. Id. at 14.
Harrington v. Unite U.S., Inc. (S.D. Fla. 2023)
Outcome: 07/11/2023 56 STIPULATION of Dismissal by Devon Harrington (Scott, Kristie) (Entered: 07/11/2023)
07/11/2023 57 ORDER Dismissing Case / Closing Case. (With Prejudice) Parties' Joint Stipulation of Dismissal With Prejudice [DE 56].This case is CLOSED. Signed by Senior Judge Patricia A. Seitz on 7/11/2023. See attached document for full details. (nan) (Entered: 07/11/2023)
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