This Is Unmanageable for the Court

From Judge Patti B. Saris (D. Mass.) today in Steiner v. eBay Inc.:

The parties have submitted a multitude of objections to deposition designations, which encompass hundreds of pages of transcripts. This is unmanageable for the Court. The parties shall confer and file a revised and minimized list of objections by noon on Friday, January 30, 2026. With respect to the remaining objections, the parties shall file copies of the relevant pages of the transcripts, including any necessary context, with the portions to which Plaintiffs object highlighted in green and the portions to which any defendant objects highlighted in yellow. The parties shall write or type the basis for the objection (i.e., hearsay, 403, relevance) in the margin of the transcript. The Court will attempt to rule on the objections within a reasonable time before the testimony is needed. Accordingly, the parties shall provide the Court with a rough estimate of the date when each deposition will be presented at trial.

The parties have also submitted trial exhibits lists designating only five exhibits as uncontested and 2,325 exhibits as contested. The fact that only five exhibits are uncontested suggests that the parties have not engaged in a good-faith effort to narrow their objections, and the Court cannot resolve objections to anywhere near 2,325 exhibits during the course of the trial. The parties shall confer about their proposed exhibits and objections and file a revised list of uncontested and contested exhibits by Friday, February 6, 2026. Objections to either deposition testimony or exhibits that are without a good-faith legal basis may result in the imposition of attorneys’ fees.