Counsel for Ecuadoreans defending a $19 billion judgment for a massive
oil spill in the Amazon should try to resolve their discovery dispute
with Chevron before taking the matter to court, a federal judge ruled.
Chevron has litigated in three continents to invalidate a verdict awarding Ecuadorean aborigines and farmers billions for environmental and health damages in a region home to 30,000 people.
Recently, the oil giant demanded user data from more than 70 email accounts in the Northern District of California, home to Silicon Valley-based companies Yahoo and Google.
Digital civil liberties watchdogs at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF, assailed the move for violating the privacy rights of Chevron's critics, including lawyers, activists and journalists.
Joining up with Earthrights International, the EFF submitted a 34-page amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief supporting the Ecuadoreans' motion to quash.
A day later, U.S. District Judge Nathanael Cousins denied the motion, for now, urging the parties to resolve the issues themselves before involving the court.
"Civil Local Rule 37-1(a) provides that the court will not entertain a motion to resolve a discovery dispute unless counsel have previously conferred for the purpose of attempting to resolve all disputed issues," Cousins began his 4-page order. "In this matter, the court has reviewed the motions to quash subpoenas ... and finds that as to each of the motions, there is no evidence presented that counsel conferred for the purpose of resolving the disputes before filing the motions."
Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/10/25/51669.htm
Chevron has litigated in three continents to invalidate a verdict awarding Ecuadorean aborigines and farmers billions for environmental and health damages in a region home to 30,000 people.
Recently, the oil giant demanded user data from more than 70 email accounts in the Northern District of California, home to Silicon Valley-based companies Yahoo and Google.
Digital civil liberties watchdogs at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF, assailed the move for violating the privacy rights of Chevron's critics, including lawyers, activists and journalists.
Joining up with Earthrights International, the EFF submitted a 34-page amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief supporting the Ecuadoreans' motion to quash.
A day later, U.S. District Judge Nathanael Cousins denied the motion, for now, urging the parties to resolve the issues themselves before involving the court.
"Civil Local Rule 37-1(a) provides that the court will not entertain a motion to resolve a discovery dispute unless counsel have previously conferred for the purpose of attempting to resolve all disputed issues," Cousins began his 4-page order. "In this matter, the court has reviewed the motions to quash subpoenas ... and finds that as to each of the motions, there is no evidence presented that counsel conferred for the purpose of resolving the disputes before filing the motions."
Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/10/25/51669.htm
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