STIPULATION AND REQUEST TO EXTEND DISCOVERY AND OTHER DEADLINES

(Fourth Request)

CARL W. HOFFMAN, Magistrate Judge.

COME NOW, Plaintiff, named above, by and through his counsel of record, MICHAEL P. BALABAN, ESQ., and Defendant, named above, by and through its attorneys of record, MYRNA L. MAYSONET, ESQ., CHERISH A BENEDICT, ESQ., and PHILLIP A. SILVESTRI, ESQ., pursuant to Local Rule 26-4, and herein stipulate, agree and make joint application to extend the discovery cut-off and related dates for a period of sixty three (63) days up to and including Monday, July 1, 2018. The present discovery cut-off date is April 30, 2018, and no calendar call date or trial date has been set.

This request is being made timely in accordance with LR 26-4 and the prior scheduling Order, which provides that requests for further discovery extensions must be made no later than twenty-one (21) days before the existing discovery cut-off date, or, here, by April 9, 2018. This is the fourth request for an extension.

To date both sides have completed written discovery. The parties are in the process of coordinating depositions however approximately three to four key witnesses (ie. managers making the key decisions challenged here) are no longer employed by Defendant and some have moved. Other witnesses sought by Plaintiff including co-workers have also left employment. While the parties have been diligently looking for them, it has been a difficult process as it requires the service of subpoenas once they are located. Unfortunately, these types of hospitality workers tend to move a lot making the effort to locate them even more cumbersome. Additionally, counsel for the parties are seeking to conserve judicial resources as they have other cases before this Court involving overlapping witnesses and thus the attorneys for both parties are coordinating the scheduling of the depositions in such cases to minimize the burden on the witnesses and travel for out-of-state counsel.

The parties and their attorneys have diligently worked to complete discovery as expediently as possible and will continue to try to complete the remaining discovery in as expedient a manner as possible.

Given the above, the parties request that the discovery period be extended as follows:

In accordance with LR 26-4 the parties understand that any further requests for discovery extensions must be made no later than twenty-one (21) days before the new proposed discovery cut-off date of July 2, 2018 or no later than twenty-one (21) days before any other deadline sought to be extended.