(See Fed. R. Civ. P. 42)

LR 42-1 Reference to The Manual for Complex Litigation

Unless otherwise directed by the Court, consolidation and case management of complex or related cases are governed by the principles set forth in The Manual for Complex Litigation (4th ed. 2004).

Practice Tip
This manual is published by The Federal Judicial Center and may be purchased from the U.S. Government Printing Office: 1995 - 395 - 123 / 30538, and also available from other sources, including Mathew Bender, West, and the Internet (www.fjc.gov).

 

LR 42-2 Responsibilities of Counsel

It is the responsibility of counsel to identify complex or related cases and to bring the matter promptly to the attention of the Court.

LR 42-3 Related Cases

For good cause shown and consistent with Fed. R. Civ. P. 42, any party may file and serve a motion to consolidate, or oppose consolidation, or for a separate trial of related cases. When a party seeks or opposes consolidation, the motion or opposition must be filed in each case to be consolidated. Each motion or opposition must include:

1. The case number, case title, and assigned judge of every related case pending in the District of Oregon.
2. The case number, case title, assigned judge, and court location of every other related case pending in any other state or federal court.
3. The common question of law or fact at issue in each case.
4. The status in each case of all pending motions, Court imposed deadlines, case management schedules, trial dates, etc.
5. The reason that the cases should be reassigned and managed by a single judicial officer.
6. The position of the other parties, if known.
7. The scope of consolidation requested, e.g., for hearing on a motion; for pretrial and discovery; or for all further proceedings, including trial.

LR 42-4 Document Caption Requirements After Consolidation

(a) Designation of Lead Case

Unless otherwise directed by the Court, the earliest filed consolidated case will be designated as the lead case for administrative control and case management purposes.

(b) Identifying Lead Case Information on Consolidated Case Papers

Unless otherwise directed by the Court, parties will file all pleadings, motions, and other case documents in the lead case only. The case number and designation of the lead case must be listed first in the document title of every document filed in consolidated cases.

Practice Tip
For example, if a party in case 3:04-CV-01111-RE, which has been consolidated with 3:04-CV-00999-RE, wishes to file a motion to compel, then the document title for the motion would read as follows: 3:04-CV-00999-RE (Lead Case) 3:04-CV-01111-RE (Trailing Case) PLAINTIFF JOHN SMITH'S MOTION TO COMPEL PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS

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Amendment History to LR 42
June 1, 2002
LR 42.5(c)	". . . . submission of pleadings and documents" added.
June 1, 2006
LR 42.1	"This manual is published . . ." stricken and moved to new Practice Tip. Practice Tip added.
LR 42.4(g)	The word "etc." stricken.
LR 42.5(b)	Practice Tip examples modified.
December 1, 2009
LR 42	Changed caption.
LR 42-1	Changed publication references.
LR 42.3	Former LR 42.3 deleted.
LR 42-3	Former LR 42.4. Caption amended. Added "and consistent with Fed. R. Civ. P. 42," and deleted "of two or more cases."
LR 42-4	Former LR 42.5 with subsection (c) deleted.
January 1, 2011
LR 42-4(b)	Rule modification to reflect current practice of filing documents in the lead case only following consolidation of cases. CM/ECF functionality allows the text of the events to be spread to the trailing cases thereby maintaining all of the individual case dockets.
March 1, 2012
LR 42-4(b)	Case number references in the Practice Tip modified to include the divisional office code and display of the case number as five digits.
March 1, 2014
LR 42-1 Practice Tip	Lowercase "The" before "Federal Judicial Center."
LR 42-3(d)	Inserted a hyphen between "Court" and "imposed."