Froglaw
Full Member
A federal judge this week expedited the principal Title IX case against Baylor University, ruling that the pretrial procedures established for the first 10 plaintiffs would also apply to the remaining five plaintiffs.
Three lawsuits, encompassing 15 women who allege that Baylor officials mishandled their sexual assault complaints, will be consolidated into one bundle for discovery and pretrial purposes, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ruled in a win for the plaintiffs.
After a lengthy and contentious discovery process in the first 10-plaintiff lawsuit, lawyers representing all 15 women were pleased by the ruling.
"It makes things much, much more efficient," Waco attorney Jim Dunnam said. "We don’t have to repeat as many things and we’ve obviously had concerns of Baylor continuing to slow down the process. This, at least, makes it a little more difficult for them to slow down the process."
The structure of the cases after the discovery phase is not yet known. Pitman will ultimately decide if the cases of the 15 plaintiffs will be heard separately in the courtroom. Until then, depositions and discovery obtained by the women known as Jane Does 1-10 apply to the remainder, known as Jane Does 11-15.
In a brief this week, Dunnam and his co-counsel, Chad Dunn of Houston, asked Pitman to consolidate the two cases, Jane Doe 11 and Jane Does 12-15, against Baylor. Those lawsuits survived motions to dismiss from Baylor and had yet to begin any significant discovery.
Seeking to avoid "a recipe for confusion" and "a wall of flow charts," the lawyers pressed Pitman further, asking him to consolidate the 15 cases.
https://www.wacotrib.com/news/court...al&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share
Three lawsuits, encompassing 15 women who allege that Baylor officials mishandled their sexual assault complaints, will be consolidated into one bundle for discovery and pretrial purposes, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ruled in a win for the plaintiffs.
After a lengthy and contentious discovery process in the first 10-plaintiff lawsuit, lawyers representing all 15 women were pleased by the ruling.
"It makes things much, much more efficient," Waco attorney Jim Dunnam said. "We don’t have to repeat as many things and we’ve obviously had concerns of Baylor continuing to slow down the process. This, at least, makes it a little more difficult for them to slow down the process."
The structure of the cases after the discovery phase is not yet known. Pitman will ultimately decide if the cases of the 15 plaintiffs will be heard separately in the courtroom. Until then, depositions and discovery obtained by the women known as Jane Does 1-10 apply to the remainder, known as Jane Does 11-15.
In a brief this week, Dunnam and his co-counsel, Chad Dunn of Houston, asked Pitman to consolidate the two cases, Jane Doe 11 and Jane Does 12-15, against Baylor. Those lawsuits survived motions to dismiss from Baylor and had yet to begin any significant discovery.
Seeking to avoid "a recipe for confusion" and "a wall of flow charts," the lawyers pressed Pitman further, asking him to consolidate the 15 cases.
https://www.wacotrib.com/news/court...al&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share
