You will recall that back in August there was a discovery dispute in New York. ChromaDex had a number of complaints -- some of Elysium's customer communications were locked up in the office, and nobody could get access due to COVID-19 restrictions. Worse, ChromaDex said they had received a number of responsive discovery documents from third-parties that they think should also have been produced by Elysium, which suggested deficiencies in Elysium's discovery compliance.
That dispute went directly to Judge Liman, not to a Magistrate Judge, and it resulted in a two-month delay on the schedule, which we thought was surprising, given Judge Liman's adamance that there not be any further delays in New York.
Judge Liman asked that the transcript be preserved, which it was, and public access became available last week. So now know exactly what happened at the discovery conference that resulted in the two-month delay. And you can read it, too:
Unfortunately, the hearing is boring and unexceptional. Judge Liman essentially told the parties to work it out themselves, which it appears they eventually did.
So there isn't much news here, except that we get our first glimpse of Judge Liman and how he interacts with the parties. He is obviously quite even-handed, That's interesting, and I would recommend the transcript to anyone closely following the litigation. Also, we get a more detailed sense of some of the types of ads that might be in question.
Judge Liman said, "...I will also ask you to order a copy of this transcript. It doesn't need to be on an expedited basis, but I would just like to have it available, and I'm sure other parties would like to have it available. That would be helpful for the Court."
In case the discovery matters are not resolved, we can easily return to what was said on this date. That's certainly helpful to legal bloggers.