AMC: It's Four in the Morning, Do You Know Where Your Documents Are?
The Court Issues a Ruling, and Some Lawyers Do Things (and Others ... Don't?)
So. It’s the weekend, and a lot has happened in the In re AMC Entertainment case, and despite the fact that this weekend was supposed to be the time when I was going to finish up the post with the complete diagesis of the stipulation and notice of settlement and all the rest, it’s turned out to be a constant barrage of new things, and so — the reporting on the new things continues.
This afternoon, Vice Chancellor Zurn issued a ruling adopting the Special Master’s Report and Recommendations I discussed last night, to which no exceptions were filed. Because no exceptions were filed, no hearing was held this morning.
The Vice Chancellor’s ruling both adopts the R&R and also “chart[s] a path forward” as to the logistics that the Special Master deferred, pending the exceptions process regarding the requests for access to document discovery.
In adopting the R&R, the Vice Chancellor’s charting of the path forward adds in some process for the particularities, since she is granting access to document discovery for both pro se and represented objectors, and the deadline to file objections is May 31st, and — in order to be useful — the document review has to be both completed and … well … made use of in advance of that deadline with enough time for the objections themselves to still be drafted and submitted.
And yes, you read that part above correctly — there are now objectors of both stripes. On Friday, the first objector had counsel put in an appearance (or technically, filed a letter) on their behalf. Part of what the objector’s counsel’s letter objected to were some of the procedural hurdles being requested by counsel for the parties, in terms of the confidentiality agreement and regarding in-person vs. electronic inspection for document discovery.
Before diving into the details of what the Vice Chancellor ordered, I am shamelessly copying Her Honor’s own language from the opinion where she said: