Charles S. Painter, Esq.
Ericksen Arbuthnot
100 Howe Avenue, Suite 110 South
Sacramento, CA 95825-8200
Dear Mr. Painter:
This will respond to your letter dated June 26, 2014.
1. In that you were going to urge the clerk not to file my latest pleading (which it already did), please advise as to the outcome of your conversation with the Yolo County Superior Court clerk, .
2. From my end, this will serve to memorialize that the clerk incorrectly “filed” stamped the pleading with the date of June 25, 2014, despite the fact that it was submitted for filing (at the drop-box) on June 24, 2014 at 2:20 pm. I plan to contact the clerk’s office to have the error corrected.
3. In connection with the anti-Slapp motion you have advanced, this will serve to meet and confer whether or not you are amenable to allowing discovery to be propounded on your clients without a court order.
As you are probably aware, upon the filing of an anti-slapp motion discovery is stayed pending the resolution of said motion. Nevertheless, Section 425.16(g) permits the judge to issue an order re-opening discovery.
After conducting comprehensive research, I believe that in order to effectively oppose the anti-slapp motion I will need to conduct discovery. Specifically, I am interested in serving your clients with requests for admissions, as well as deposing Douglas Winthrop, Richard Tom, and Geoffrey Brown before the opposition is due.
As such, my question to you is whether you would be willing to produce your clients for depositions and answer requests for admission without me approaching the court seeking an order authorizing discovery. In the alternative, I am amenable to working with you in good faith to enter into factual stipulations that I can present to the court in my opposition to the anti-slapp motion.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.