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Breaking NewsUpdated 4/5/2010: The City made offers of settlement to many of the Plaintiffs in the case, including all employees of the Police Department and all employees of the Fire Department below the rank of Battalion Chief. A total of 280 Plaintiffs accepted the City's offer. The magistrate judge recommended that the settlement be approved on March 31, 2010. This recommendation will go to the district judge, Judge Ezra, who will decide whether to approve the settlement. We will continue to represent those Plaintiffs who did not accept settlement offers and press forward with their claims. The trial date in 2010 was taken off the Court's calendar, and the magistrate judge will set new dates for completing discovery, filing motions, and trying the case once the first settlement is finalized. Updated 10/18/2009: We have been in the process of exchanging information with the City (called "discovery"), which usually takes a long time to complete, especially with a case that involves nearly 500 plaintiffs. The Court ordered us to provide certain information to the City from Plaintiffs' telephone interviews. Before we gave this information, we negotiated a "protective order" to limit how the information could be used. Each side made a discovery plan, and the Court agreed to use our plan rather than the City's plan. This means that the case will go forward with "representative plaintiffs"-in other words, a sample of plaintiffs will be selected randomly to provide additional information in writing and in depositions under oath. After discovery, both sides will be filing motions to ask the Court to decide certain issues in advance of a trial. Then, if the case does not settle, it is scheduled to go to trial before the end of 2010. |