Adams v. Commissioner of Social Security

Filing 28

STIPULATION and ORDER to Extend Time signed by Magistrate Judge Gary S. Austin on 7/24/2009. (Esteves, C)

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LAWRENCE G. BROWN Acting United States Attorney LUCILLE GONZALES MEIS Regional Chief Counsel, Region IX Social Security Administration ELIZABETH FIRER Special Assistant United States Attorney 333 Market Street, Suite 1500 San Francisco, California 94105 Telephone: [phone] Facsimile: [phone] E-Mail: [e-mail] Attorneys for Defendant UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA FRESNO DIVISION

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 attached Order, that Defendant shall have a final extension of time of 48 days to respond to Plaintiff's 20 opening brief up to and including July 22, 2009. Defendant is filing his opposition to Plaintiff's opening 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 brief this same day. Defendant requires this final extension due to a case management error made by the undersigned attorney for the Commissioner. Said attorney had previously been granted extensions in this case and intended to file the Commissioner's opposition by June 4, 2009. However, counsel failed to file the Commissioner's brief on time as she inadvertently deleted it from her calendar and thus believed the brief had been filed. Staff for Plaintiff called the error to Counsel's attention. Counsel's confusion was occasioned by the large number of case shifting currently going on in the Commissioner's Office of Regional Chief Counsel. The office recently experienced sudden TERRY ADAMS, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) ) MICHAEL J. ASTRUE, ) Acting Commissioner of ) Social Security, ) ) Defendant. ) _________________________________) CIVIL NO. 1:08-CV-00156-OWW-GSA STIPULATION AND ORDER TO EXTEND TIME

The parties hereby stipulate by counsel, with the Court's approval as indicated by issuance of the

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departures of four senior attorneys, two of whom accepted positions as administrative law judges, which provided only a short time between the offer dates and starting dates. Also, one senior attorney, for whom the undersigned attorney for the Commissioner was backing up on an unrelated matter, went on extended emergency medical leave. This departure caused hardship as no one in the Commissioner's office had a firm grip on what was pending in this attorney's cases and re-assignments have been done with no notice and often at an emergency stage. Another senior attorney is on extended paternity leave, and a third senior attorney is currently working part-time due to the serious medical condition of a family member. Due to these departures and absences, the attorneys in the Commissioner's regional office have experienced an unanticipated increase in workload due to office restructuring and reassignment of over 250 district court cases and approximately 20 Ninth Circuit appeals. This massive reassigning has, unfortunately, resulted in an occasional calendaring error as happened in this case. The Commissioner's opposition will be filed at the same time as this stipulation. The parties

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further stipulate that the Court's Scheduling Order shall be modified accordingly. Respectfully submitted, Dated July 22, 2009, /s/ Sengthiene Bosavanh _______________________ Sengthiene Bosavanh (as authorized by telephone) Attorney for Plaintiff LAWRENCE G. BROWN Acting United States Attorney LUCILLE GONZALES MEIS Regional Chief Counsel, Region IX Social Security Administration By: /s/ Elizabeth Firer _______________________ Elizabeth Firer Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Attorneys for Defendant /// ///

Dated July 22, 2009,

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ORDER Having considered the parties' stipulation, the Commissioner's request for an extension of time to file its opposition until July 22, 2009 is granted nunc pro tunc. The Court's scheduling order shall be modified accordingly. IT IS SO ORDERED. Dated: 6i0kij

July 24, 2009

/s/ Gary S. Austin UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

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