STIPULATION TO EXTEND DISCOVERY CUTOFF AND EXPERT DISCLOSURE DATES AND ORDER

TROY L. NUNLEY, District Judge.

WHEREAS the Court's Pretrial Scheduling Order [Dkt 38] referred this matter to the Court's Voluntary Dispute Resolution Program;

WHEREAS the VDRP Administrator has appointed four (4) different VDRP Neutrals [Dkt. 39, 41, 44 and 48] over the last four months and had to withdraw all of those appointments for various reasons not attributable to the parties [Dkt. 40 (neutral calendar too full), 43 (neutral did not respond to communications from court), 45 (neutral had conflict of interest) and 49(neutral retired)];

WHEREAS Plaintiff RSUI Indemnity Company ("RSUI") and Defendant Discover P&C Insurance Co. ("DPCIC") had not anticipated these difficulties in selecting a mediator when they stipulated to the VDRP program and provided their Joint Status Report [Dkt 35] to the Court regarding the pre-trial schedule;

WHEREAS the Court's Pretrial Scheduling Order [Dkt 38] provides all discovery in this matter shall be completed by February 17, 2017, expert designations and Rule 26(a)(2)(B) reports are to be made no later than April 20, 2017, and rebuttal experts are to be designated no later than 20 days after the designation of experts;

WHESEAR RSUI and DPCIC have conducted a substantial amount of written discovery, but would like to opportunity to complete the VDRP mediation before incurring all the expense required to complete discovery, designate experts and designate rebuttal experts;

WHEREAS a six week extension of the discovery cutoff and expert designation dates should allow the parties to explore settlement and potentially avoid the expense of completing discovery designation of experts;

WHEREAS the extension will not otherwise impact the Court's Pretrial Scheduling Order or the trial date;

WHEREAS the Parties have not previously sought any extension of the discovery cutoff date, the expert designation date or the rebuttal expert designation date;

NOW, THEREFORE, pursuant to Eastern District Local Rules 143 and 144, THE PARTIES HEREBY STIPULATE, by and through their attorneys of record and subject to the Court's approval, that (1) the February 17, 2017 discovery cutoff date in the Pretrial Scheduling Order be extended to April 1, 2017; (2) the April 20, 2017 expert designation be extended to May 1, 2017, and (3) the date for designation of rebuttal experts be extended to May 20, 2017.

I, Chad A. Westfall, am the ECF user whose ID and password are being used to file this STIPULATION TO EXTEND DISCOVERY CUTOFF AND EXPERT DISCLOSURE DATES. I hereby attest that the counsel whose e-signature appears above has concurred with this filing.

IT IS SO ORDERED.