ORDER GRANTING IN PART DEFENDANT'S EX PARTE MOTION TO CONTINUE DEADLINE FOR FILING JOINT DETERMINATION OF DISCOVERY DISPUTE.

[ECF No. 45]

NITA L. STORMES, Magistrate Judge.

Before the Court is Defendant BMW of North America, LLC's ("BMW") ex parte motion, requesting an extension of time for the parties to file a joint motion for determination of discovery dispute. ECF No. 45. Plaintiff opposes the request, or alternatively, requests that certain subsequent deadlines also be extended. ECF No. 47.

On October 29, 2018, the Court issued an order denying BMW's request to find the joint motion for determination of discovery dispute untimely. ECF No. 43. In that order, the Court ordered the parties to meet and confer and, if still unable to resolve their dispute, to file their joint motion by November 13, 2018. Id.

BMW now seeks an extension of this deadline to December 13, 2018, in light of its recent substitution of counsel. ECF No. 45. BMW states that the substitution of counsel took place on November 6, 2018, and new counsel obtained partial file materials on November 2, 2018. Id. at 2. As such, BMW argues that its new counsel needs more time to review the materials so that it participate in the joint motion practice. Id. at 3.

Plaintiff was amenable to this extension request, but asked for BMW to agree to a commensurate extension on the following deadlines: opening and rebuttal expert report deadlines, close of fact discovery, and deadline to file pretrial motions. ECF No. 47 at 1. Plaintiff argues that an extension is appropriate for these dates because he intends to use the discovery he seeks in the joint motion in his expert reports and pretrial motions. Id. Plaintiff states that BMW refused to agree. Id. Moreover, Plaintiff argues that the requested extension is excessive and proposes that two weeks would be more appropriate. Id. at 3.

The Court agrees with Plaintiff. The dispute presented in BMW's previous ex parte request was not broad and only related to BMW's refusal to give testimony regarding certain defects reported in vehicles from the same year, make, and model as Plaintiff's vehicle, and the Court's order limited the joint motion to only these issues. ECF No. 43 at 4-5. Even if BMW's new counsel may need more time to come up to speed on the case generally, the Court finds that an extension of approximately two weeks should be sufficient for counsel to adequately respond to the discovery dispute. In light of the upcoming holidays, the Court will extend the time to file the joint motion to

November 30, 2018.

The Court will also grant a limited extension to the following deadlines:

All other dates shall remain as previously set.

IT IS SO ORDERED.