It is official: Apple’s tentatively scheduled May damages trial has been moved to July. In an order filed yesterday, Judge Denise Cote set out a new schedule for the parties, culminating with a July 14 trial.
Under the order, the parties must exchange witness lists, exhibit lists, deposition designations, and stipulations by June 6, 2014.
A joint pre-trial order from the parties is due by June 20, which must include any motions addressing “evidentiary issues or other matters” and a pretrial memorandum of law addressing “all questions of law expected to arise at trial, requests to charge, and proposed voir dire questions.”
Responses to those filings are due June 27.
Replies to those responses, which must be limited to five pages, are to be filed by July 1.
A final pretrial conference is scheduled for July 9, 2014 at 2 p.m.,
The trial is set to begin at 9:30 a.m. on July 14, 2014.
The new schedule follows a proposal submitted by the plaintiffs. Apple had proposed a schedule that would have had any trial begin in September.
Of course, it remains to be seen if this new schedule will remain intact. Apple has moved for a stay of all proceedings, insisting that it will prevail on its appeals, and that the court should thus stay proceedings until those appeals have been ruled upon by the Second Circuit.
In addition, the judge is also considering a plaintiff motion for summary judgment, which is now fully briefed.
And of course, it remains to be seen who will testify on Apple’s side, after Cote handed down two key rulings against Apple last month, one of which disqualified two of Apple’s key expert witnesses. Apple has since filed a motion for reconsideration of that decision, which is now being briefed, but it appears unlikely that Cote would reverse her decision to strike Apple’s expert testimony, which she held was “fundamentally flawed.”
In other developments, Apple’s external monitor Michael Bromwich has filed a report with the court, saying Apple is now cooperating. In January, Cote rejected Apple’s bid to stay the work of the monitor.
