The Commercial Division of New York Supreme Court now has a trio of model case management order forms designed to facilitate both the efficient pursuit of discovery and the court’s supervision of that critical -- often costly and contentious -- phase in a litigation.

A new Model Status Conference (SC) Order Form has been promulgated effective tomorrow. It tracks the previously promulgated Preliminary Conference (PC) Form and Model Compliance Conference (CC) Form. Each form comes into play at different phases of a litigation, as counsel periodically report to the court on the scope and status of discovery. The Commercial Division Advisory Council, which recommended and drafted all three forms, advises that the latest addition to the trio “presumes the parties have filled out the PC Form, returned to Court a number of months later to report on their progress concerning discovery on their CC Form and are now again returning to the Court to identify on their SC form the final discovery matters that need to be completed” before the case is declared trial-ready.

In an Administrative Order dated October 19, 2015, the new Model SC Form was prescribed “for optional use” in the Commercial Division effective December 1, 2015.

In recommending the adoption of the new Model SC Form, the Advisory Council stated that the form “presumes the parties are working diligently to complete the necessary discovery” in a timely fashion. The form was designed to provide a uniform mechanism to assist practitioners in identifying for the court what additional work needs to be done to complete that discovery. “The Status Conference is not presumed to be the final time the parties will have to return to the courtroom to complete discovery,” the Advisory Council stated, “but is intended to help the parties approach a successful completion of this phase of the case.”

The Advisory Council’s recommendations with respect to the Model SC Form were outlined in a memorandum dated March 16, 2015, which the Office of Court Administration released for public comment on April 16, 2015.

For more information on this advisory, please contact:

William S. Gyves
(212) 808-7640
wgyves@kelleydrye.com

Trio of Model Case Management Order Forms Now in Place in New York’s Commercial Division