Smith v. Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC

Filing 12

ORDER that pltf's 8 Motion to Compel is summarily denied. Signed by Judge J. Leon Holmes on 9/11/12. (vjt)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS
WESTERN DIVISION
KYLE SMITH
v.

PLAINTIFF
NO. 4:12CV00212 JLH

PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES, LLC

DEFENDANTS

ORDER
Kyle Smith has filed a motion to compel in which he argues that Portfolio Recovery
Associates, LLC, has failed to provide complete disclosures as required by Rule 26(a)(1) of the
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Local Rule 7.2(g) provides:
All motions to compel discovery and all other discovery-enforcement motions and all
motions for protective orders shall contain a statement by the moving party that the
parties have conferred in good faith on the specific issue or issues in dispute and that
they are not able to resolve their disagreements without the intervention of the court.
If any such motion lacks such a statement, that motion may be dismissed summarily
for failure to comply with this rule. Repeated failures to comply will be considered
an adequate basis for the imposition of sanctions.
Smith’s motion to compel recites that he sent a letter to defense counsel about the inadequacies in
the disclosures and he has attached a copy of the letter to the motion. His letter points out the alleged
deficiencies and states a deadline on which the disclosures must be supplemented in order to avoid
a motion to compel. Writing a demand letter and stating a deadline does not constitute conferring
in good faith. To confer means:
To consult together; to compare opinions; to carry on a discussion or deliberation;
formerly often simply to discourse, to talk, but now implying conversation on some
serious or important subject, in distinction from mere light talk or familiar
conversation.

WEBSTER’S NEW 20TH CENTURY DICTIONARY

OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE 360 (The World

Publishing Company, 1951). See also Bryan A. Garner, A DICTIONARY OF MODERN LEGAL USAGE
198 (2nd ed. 1987) (confer means “to come together to take counsel and exchange views”). Confer
is related to conference, which is a “meeting of several persons for deliberation, for the interchange
of opinion, or the removal of differences or disputes.” BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY 368 (4th ed.
1968). The parties have not had a conversation about this discovery dispute, so they have not
conferred at all, much less conferred in good faith. The motion is therefore summarily denied.
Document #8.
IT IS SO ORDERED this 11th day of September, 2012.

J. LEON HOLMES
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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