Friday, December 06, 2024

Hon. Michael McShane, Chief Judge

Melissa Aubin, Clerk of Court

(See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56)

LR 56-1 Motion for Summary Judgment

(a) Supporting Factual Positions

A party's factual positions must be supported by citations, by page and line as appropriate, to the particular parts of materials in the record. Unless otherwise ordered by the Court, a party is not required to file a separate Concise Statement of Material Facts. If ordered, a Concise Statement of Material Facts may not exceed 1,500 words, or in the alternative, five pages. If the document exceeds the page limit, then the party must certify compliance with the word-count limit by filing a Certificate of Compliance as provided in LR 7-2(b). This limitation includes headings, footnotes, and quotations, but excludes the caption, table of contents, table of cases and authorities, signature block, exhibits, and certificates of counsel.

(b) Evidentiary Objections

Rather than filing a motion to strike, a party must assert any evidentiary objections in its response or reply memorandum. Evidentiary objections in a response or reply memorandum are subject to the certification requirement of LR 7-1(a). If an evidentiary objection is raised in the non-moving party's response memorandum, the moving party may address the objection in its reply memorandum; the non-moving party may not file further briefing on its evidentiary objection. If an evidentiary objection is raised by the moving party in its reply memorandum, the non-moving party may file a surreply memorandum pursuant to this subparagraph within seven days addressing only the evidentiary objection; the moving party may not file further briefing on its evidentiary objection. 

Commentary

An evidentiary objection in a response or reply memorandum may be supported by argument and should be stated concisely. See Pfingston v. Ronan Engineering Co., 284 F.3d 999, 1003 (9th Cir. 2002); Fed. R. Evid. 103(a)(1). If the case goes to trial, failure to challenge admissibility at the summary judgment stage does not forfeit the right to challenge admissibility at trial.


Amendment History to LR 56
June 1, 2002
LR 56.1(a)(2) Cross-reference LR 56.1(c) formatting and citation instructions to be included in the Concise Statement.
LR 56.1(b) " and Reply . . ." added to caption.
LR 56.1(b)(2) Last sentence added for clarification.
LR 56.1(c) Requirement to include page number and line number (where appropriate) information to the Concise Statement.
LR 56.1(f) "or in the response . . ." added. June 1, 2006 Generally Appendix of Forms numbers updated.
June 1, 2006
Generally Appendix of Forms numbers updated.
LR 56.1(a) &
LR 56.1(b)(1)
The words "separately filed . . ." added.
LR 56.1(d) The words "neither" and "nor any response or reply thereto" added.
The word "not" stricken.
The word "stricken" substituted for "returned."
December 1, 2009
LR 56 Practice Tip and Commentary added. References to Appendix of Forms deleted.
LR 56-1(b)(1)(B) The phrase "moving party" substituted for "movant."
LR 56-1(b)(3) Reworded for clarification.
LR 56-1(c)(1) The word "must" substituted for "shall."
LR 56-1(c)(3) The phrase "are not to" substituted for "shall not."
LR 56-1(g) Added to establish briefing requirements for evidentiary objections.
January 1, 2011
LR 56 Commentary added to call practitioners' attention to elimination of requirement that parties must submit a concise statement of material facts unless otherwise ordered by the Court, and that this change is subject to a period of study and evaluation.
LR 56-1(a)(1) & (2), (b), (c), (d), (e), & (f) Deleted.
LR 56-1(b) Former LR 56-1(g).
March 1, 2012
LR 56 Removed Commentary Item 1 as the period for comments to the Local Rules Advisory Committee has passed.
LR 56-1(b) Addition of sentence, "Evidentiary objections in a response or reply memorandum are subject to the certification requirement of LR 7-1(a)."
March 1, 2013
LR 56 General clerical corrections including the addition of missing periods in the rule's Amendment History.
LR 56-1(a) Capitalization of the word "Court" in the second sentence.
March 1, 2014
LR 56-1(a) Added new third, fourth and fifth sentences applying word-count and page limitation.
LR 56-1(b) Changed "seven (7)" to "seven."
January 1, 2019
LR 56-1(b) In the first sentence, replaced "may" with "must" and added "any" before "evidentiary objection."  Deleted the following final two sentences:  "If a party asserts an evidentiary objection in a motion to strike evidence, no reply memorandum is permitted.  Unless otherwise ordered by the court, any oral argument as to evidentiary objections will be scheduled for the same time as the summary judgment motion."
LR 56 Commentary After the first sentence, deleted:  "There is no need to make a separate motion to strike."