STIPULATION AND ORDER REGARDING DEPOSITION PROTOCOL

SANDRA B. ARMSTRONG, District Judge.

WHEREAS, the Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs and Defendants in the related Multidistrict Litigation ("MDL") action in the Northern District of Illinois (Case No. 1:09-cv-07666) have stipulated to a deposition protocol in an effort to streamline the scheduling of depositions (Docket No. 534);

WHEREAS, in an effort to continue the coordination of discovery with the related MDL action and prevent any duplication or inefficiency, all Parties agree that the MDL action's deposition protocol should be adopted here; and

WHEREAS, all Parties are in agreement on the proposed deposition protocol;

IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED, by Counsel for Plaintiff County of San Mateo and Counsel for Defendants CSL Limited; CSL Behring LLC; CSL Plasma; Baxter International Inc.; and Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association that the deposition protocol stipulated to by the parties in the related MDL action in the Northern District of Illinois is adopted in this action. The parties stipulate to a deposition protocol as follows:

1. Counsel for Indirect and Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs will confer regarding proposed deposition dates and locations in advance of providing notice of proposed dates to Defendants, and Defendants will confer prior to providing notice of proposed dates to Plaintiffs;

2. The parties will endeavor, where practicable, to notify each other of which party deponents they wish to depose based upon the parties' knowledge of the current discovery record, and will attempt to identify party deponents for the upcoming month to assist with scheduling depositions;

3. Counsel for the noticed party will respond to the party issuing notice within five (5) business days, and will identify three (3) dates on which the witness and his or her counsel will be available;

4. Absent extenuating circumstances, the noticing party will accept one of the three proposed dates provided by the noticed party as a counterproposal to the original notice. If for some reason that is not practical, the parties will confer and reach agreement on a date for the deposition within three (3) business days of receipt of the alternate dates;

5. If a party objects to producing a witness whose deposition has been requested, it must set forth its objections within five (5) business days of receiving such notice, and meet and confer with the noticing party promptly thereafter;

6. For third party deponents, the noticing party will confer with the witness's counsel to solicit three available dates for the deposition, all occurring two or more weeks in the future. The noticing party will confer with the other parties regarding a mutually convenient date and communicate the same to the third-party deponent; and

7. That, for party depositions, if the noticing party and the noticed party have agreed upon a date, all other parties will make counsel available to attend the deposition absent extenuating circumstances which make the participation of all counsel from the firm(s) in question unavailable.

IT IS SO ORDERED.