SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR CASES BEFORE JUDGE RICHARD MARK GERGEL CM/ECF The Case Management / Electronic Case Filing System (CM/ECF) is fully operational in this District. All filings by attorneys admitted to this bar must be made via CM/ECF. Please refer to the court's website for further information on CM/ECF and Judge Gergel's filing preferences. Requests for extension of time or protection via fax, mail or telephone are no longer accepted: All written communications with the court must be filed electronically in the case. Extensions of time or protection requests must comply with Local Rule 6.01. Proposed orders shall be sent as a W ORDPERFECT or MSWORD document directly to chambers at gergel_ecf@scd.uscourts.gov. (Times New Roman font, 12 pt., double-spaced is preferred). COURTESY COPIES Send courtesy copies of motions, related memoranda, and attachments if these documents together exceed 25 pages. * * * Courtesy copies should be printed after filing in ECF, with the ECF header printed on every page. If the collective document (e.g., memorandum plus exhibits) exceeds 50 pages, submit it in bound form with cover. Unless otherwise indicated, the courtesy copies should be delivered to chambers within three business days of filing or the request for copies. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN COUNSEL Attorneys frequently copy the court on correspondence between counsel. This is seldom appropriate. Unless correspondence is directly related to a pending motion, there is no reason to copy the court. If it relates to a pending motion and is relevant to issues before the court, the correspondence should be f iled as an exhibit. If it merely relates to an anticipated motion (usually a discovery dispute), it would be more appropriate simply to hold such correspondence and to attach it a s an exhibit if a motion becomes necessary. EXTENSION OF DEADLINES The deadlines in scheduling orders issued by this court are established after review of the parties' Fed. R. Civ. P. 26.01 interrogatory responses with careful consideration to the nature of the case. After the parties consult and submit their Rule 26(f) report, the parties can request that the court modify the scheduling order or request a scheduling conference with the Court. For this reason, extensions should seldom be necessary. If, however, it becomes necessary to seek an extension, you may file a motion addressing the following: Date of the current deadline; C Whether the deadline has been extended before; C The number of additional days requested, and proposed new deadline; C Whether the extension would affect other deadlines; and C If opposing counsel agrees to or opposes the extension; and C Proposed Orders for Extensions must be emailed to the Judge's ECF email address immediately after the motion is filed. 1 American LegalNet, Inc. www.FormsWorkFlow.com Do not wait until the last day before the deadline to request an extension. Do not call chambers to determine if the extension has been granted. You may, however, call the Case Manager in the Clerk's Office or check the docket on the CM/ECF website. Absent extraordinary circumstances, requests should be made sufficiently in advance to allow you to receive a response before the deadline passes. See Local Civil Rule 6.01 and 7.02. FACSIMILE USAGE Under certain compelling circumstances, counsel may correspond with the court by facsimile. The following guidelines apply: C Facsimile should not be used unless a member of chambers staff has requested or approved the use of facsimile; C Facsimile should not be used unless hand delivery is impractical and the court needs to have the information more quickly than could be accomplished by regular mail; C Facsimile is not a substitute for filing any document required to be filed; C Do not send chambers a hard copy of documents sent by facsimile unless specifically requested. MEDIATION As part of the Rule 26(f) conference, the parties should inquire into (a) whether early mediation would be useful; and (b) if early mediation is not thought to be useful, when is the earliest stage in which mediation might be useful? The parties should jointly complete the attached form, "Mediation of Cases Pending Before Judge Gergel," attached hereto, as part of their Rule 26(f) report. The information submitted to the Court on this form will be used to set the deadline for mediation, which will be in a following order. AMENDMENT OF PLEADINGS This is the earliest deadline for a very important reason: to allow discovery to address all issues and all potential parties. Late requests to amend are, therefore, strongly discouraged. This is especially true if the amendment would add a party. Any request to amend after the scheduling order deadline should include an explanation of why the amendment could not have been sought earlier. Parties who delay seeking to amend until late in the litigation, especially as to known potential parties, risk denial of their motions. FILING OF CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL The parties' attention is specifically directed to Local Civil Rule 5.03 regarding the filing of confidential material. WEB SITE The District of South Carolina maintains a website with various forms and resources at: www.scd.uscourts.gov. ATTENDANCE All attorneys and unrepresented parties with cases listed on the bar meeting roster are required to attend the bar meeting or to send an attorney knowledgeable about the case. 2 American LegalNet, Inc. www.FormsWorkFlow.com PENDING MOTIONS Counsel or unrepresented parties should be prepared to arg ue any pending motions at the bar meeting that have not already been scheduled for a hearing. REQUESTS FOR PROTECTION Counsel must file a request for protection which is in compliance with Local Civil Rule 6.02 and includes any compelling scheduling conflicts during the time for which protection is requested and/or that will be affected by the time protection is requested. Proposed orders for the same must be emailed to the Judge's ECF email address. The court will attempt to provide protection for requests that are timely received. TRIAL DATES When possible, parties will be informed of the tentative date for jury trials on the day of jury selection. Nonjury cases will be interspersed among the jury trials depending on available trial time and the estimated length of the proceedings. Cases may not be called in docket order. Unless a specific trial date is assigned, parties and witnesses should be on stand-by for appearance on short notice.