STIPULATION REGARDING TRIAL PROCEDURES

MIRANDA M. DU, District Judge.

The Parties respectfully submit the following Stipulation Regarding Trial Procedures:

RECITALS

WHEREAS, the Court entered a Minute Order on January 17, 2020 (Dkt. 572) providing, inter alia, that (1) the Parties each shall submit a trial brief not to exceed 30-pages setting forth the Parties' stipulated facts and issues to be tried, (2) Defendants shall number their trial exhibits beginning with number 500 (or a number to follow Plaintiff's last exhibit number, if Plaintiff has more than 500 exhibits), and (3) the Parties shall provide to the Court four complete sets of all exhibits;

WHEREAS, the Court previously entered a Joint Pretrial Order setting forth the Parties' stipulated facts and listing the issues to be tried (Dkt. 566);

WHEREAS, in light of the Joint Pretrial Order, the Parties do not believe that trial briefs are necessary;

WHEREAS, the Parties additionally believe that they should not brief legal and factual issues to the Commission prior to the trial;

WHEREAS, prior to issuance of the Minute Order, the Parties already had exchanged pre-marked copies of exhibits, and Defendants had pre-marked their exhibits as Defendants' Exhibit 1, Defendants' Exhibit 2, etc.;

WHEREAS, Defendants respectfully request that they be excused from the burden of re-numbering their exhibits, and the United States has no objection to this request;

WHEREAS, the Parties have voluminous exhibits and believe that the Court and Commission would benefit from the Parties providing hard copies only of those exhibits that they expect to use at trial, as opposed to all trial exhibits (i.e., hard copies of "may use" exhibits would not be provided except in electronic form);

WHEREAS, to the extent that the Parties put forward a "may use" exhibit not previously provided in the binders, the Parties will be prepared to hand-up hard copies of such exhibits to the Commission and Court deputy/administrator;

WHEREAS, the Parties have agreed that the trial time for witness examinations should be divided equally and, to that end, have agreed to a "chess clock" method of keeping track of time;

WHEREAS, the Parties have agreed on a procedure for disclosing demonstrative exhibits and the order of calling witnesses; and

WHEREAS, the Parties respectfully request that the Court so order these stipulations.

STIPULATIONS FOR TRIAL

NOW THEREFORE, the Parties stipulate as follows with respect to the trial scheduled in this case:

1.) The Minute Order entered on January 17, 2020 (Dkt. 572) ("Minute Order") is hereby amended to eliminate the requirement of submission of trial briefs. The Joint Pretrial Order entered by the Court (Dkt. 566), which sets forth the stipulated facts and issues to be tried, shall be provided to the Commission, without the attached Exhibits, in lieu of trial briefs.

2.) The Minute Order is hereby amended to permit Defendants' trial exhibits to be assigned numbers beginning with Defendants' Exhibit 1, Defendants' Exhibit 2, etc, Defendants do not need to begin numbering their exhibits at 500 or some greater number to follow Plaintiff's exhibit numbers.

3.) The Minute Order is hereby amended to require the Parties to submit to the Courtroom Administrator, one week before trial, four (4) binders of only those exhibits that the Parties expect to use at trial; however, the electronic copy of the exhibits to be provided to the Courtroom Administrator shall include all exhibits that the Parties may use at trial. To the extent that the Parties use at trial any exhibit not provided in the binders, they shall have hard copies available for all of the Commissioners and the Courtroom Deputy/Administrator.

4.) Plaintiff and Defendants shall be allocated equal time for examining witnesses (to spend however each party deems appropriate). To that end, a "chess clock" method is adopted for the trial. Plaintiff and Defendants shall delegate a person to keep track of witness examination time, and these two representatives shall confer and agree during breaks regarding the time each party used to examine the witness(es). Time spent by the Commissioners to examine a witness shall not be counted against either party, nor shall time arguing any legal or factual issue. The trial is scheduled for nine (9) days of witness testimony, or an estimated 54 total hours of witness examination time (nine days multiplied by six hours of witness examination). Plaintiff and Defendants accordingly each shall have an estimated maximum of twenty-seven (27) hours of witness examination time to use however they deem appropriate (although they need not use all of their allocated time). The estimated maximum examination time that may be used by either Plaintiff or Defendants may be modified by the Commission, provided that Plaintiff and Defendants are accorded equal time for examining witnesses.

5.) Any demonstrative exhibit shall be disclosed to the other party by 6:00pm on the day preceding the use of such demonstrative exhibit.

6.) Each party shall disclose the witnesses that they intend to call the next day of trial. These disclosures shall be made by 6:00pm on the day preceding the calling of said witnesses.

WHEREFORE, the Parties respectfully request that the Court so order the above stipulations.

SO ORDERED.