Water Committee Agenda and Packet 2011 03 04

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February 17, 2011 Page 2 of 3 by telephone every few months, to monitor the progress of the case. The advantages to being on the referee's docket include fewer court mandated filings, including disclosures, case management and trial management orders, and there is no formal discovery (oral depositions, written interrogatories, and requests for production of documents), and no formal engineers' meetings. A main disadvantage to being on the referee's docket is that there are no court ordered deadlines. It has been difficult to have the other parties to focus on the case, providing legitimate review and comments, without court deadlines. In addition, no trial date will be set until the case is on the judge's docket. Currently, cases that require four or five days of trial are being set for mid 2013. The City's case, if it was to go to trial, might be an eight or nine ate, tr; -i A u y u On the judge's docket, there would be more initial court paperwork to be filed, and a possibility of formal discovery requests. This would increase the legal and engineering costs to the City during the first four or five months after the case is "re- referred" to the judge's docket. However, the major advantage is that there would be time deadlines for parties to review materials, and other parties must also file disclosures and engineering analyses. A trial date would be set, again, most likely not earlier than mid to late 2013, but it would give the City a date to work against. The added initial cost of having the case on the judge's docket would likely be in the range of $3,000 to $4,000, which would include preparation of initial disclosures, expert disclosures, case management order, various trial setting notices, and other court pleadings and requirements. It would also include reviewing the disclosure documents filed by other parties. Although it is possible for the water referee to set deadlines for review and comment on the engineering report that has already been circulated, and the proposed ruling, the referee really has no sanctions or other leverage to use in requiring parties to meet deadlines. In addition, any party, at any time, can re -refer the matter to the judge's docket, without the consent of the other parties.