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Oops. What was I Supposed to Include with my Motion?
Practical Law Legal Update w-000-3869 (Approx. 4 pages)
Oops. What was I Supposed to Include with my Motion?
by Practical Law Litigation
| Published on 09 Jun 2015 • USA (National/Federal) |
Attorneys should ensure their summary judgment motions conform to all federal, local and judge's rules before filing them with the court. As one recent case demonstrates, courts take these rules seriously and may dismiss a motion that is procedurally defective.
Summary judgment motions can be costly and time-consuming to make. Having your motion denied because you failed to follow the local or judge's summary judgment rules is not only a waste of time and money, but also an embarrassing mistake that no one wants to make in front of her client or the court.
Because the summary judgment procedure allows a judge to rule on the parties' claims without going to trial, courts routinely require counsel to include additional components to summary judgment motions that are not necessary for other motions. For example:
- When moving for summary judgment against a pro se party, the court may require counsel to:
- serve and file a separate notice (the form of this notice typically is included in the local rules and generally explains summary judgment and what the pro se party needs to do to oppose it (see, for example, S.D.N.Y. and E.D.N.Y L. Civ. R. 56.2; N.D. Ill. L. Civ. R. 56.2)); and
- attach the full texts of the local rules regarding summary judgment to the notice (see, for example, S.D.N.Y. and E.D.N.Y L. Civ. R. 56.2).
- Courts sometimes require parties to submit a separate statement of facts detailing all of the facts relevant to the motion for summary judgment (see, for example, S.D.N.Y. and E.D.N.Y L. Civ. R. 56.1; D. Haw. LR 56.1). Counsel must support all factual statements with cites to admissible evidence.
Courts take these rules seriously. As a recent case demonstrates, counsel's failure to follow these rules may result in the denial of their summary judgment motion. In Powers v. Lyons Ctr. Sch. Dist., the court dismissed the defendant's summary judgment motion due to its attorney's multiple procedural errors. For its first filing, the defendant failed to include both cites to admissible evidence in its statement of facts and a notice of the motion to the pro se plaintiff as required by the court's local rules, W.D.N.Y. L. Civ. R. 56 (a)(3) and 56(b), respectively (No. 11-cv-6319, , at *1-2 (W.D.N.Y. Oct. 23, 2014)). Defendant re-filed its motion, but this time failed to include any statement of facts. The court once again denied the motion and further directed the defendant's attorney to show cause why she should not be sanctioned for ignoring both the rules of the court and the prior dismissal order that specifically set out the defects of the first motion (11-cv-6319 (W.D.N.Y. Mar. 4, 2015)).
Before making a summary judgment motion, counsel should consult all applicable rules for guidance on issues such as:
- What documents must be filed when making a summary judgment motion.
- How to properly format the summary judgment papers, with some courts or judges setting out rules on:
- paper size;
- the width of the margins;
- line spacing;
- the font size of the main text;
- the font size of the footnotes; and
- numbered paragraphs in the statement of facts.
- Applicable page limits.
- Acceptable methods of service and filing.
Several Practical Law resources will assist counsel in ensuring that their summary judgment motions are properly formatted and comply with the relevant rules, including the following: