New deadline set for U-46 bias suit

Two of three motions filed by lawyers representing the Elgin families suing Elgin Area School District U-46 were denied by a federal judge Tuesday.

During a status hearing at the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago, Magistrate Judge Michael T. Mason addressed plaintiffs' request that the district produce more electronically stored documents. The written phase of discovery, where parties exchange paper and electronic evidence, was supposed to end Nov. 30. The chapter was only formally closed after Mason's ruling.

Lawyers from Futterman and Howard, the Chicago firm that represents the families, failed to demonstrate how additional documents would produce specific new information, Mason said.

The district already has produced 1.5 million electronic documents, and 290,000 student data files.

The benefits of producing more electronic documents are "outweighed by the significant burden and expense," Mason said. "Taxpayers have already been substantially burdened … enough is enough." According to district data, U-46 has spent more than $4.6 million to date in defense of the lawsuit.

Mason also mandated that both sides work out privilege-log discrepancies amongst themselves.

"The amount of work plaintiffs expect this court to undertake is ridiculous," Mason said, referencing the hundreds of pages. "Court is not going to do the work for you."

Privilege logs are lists of all the documents each side believes are privileged and immune from having to be turned over to the other side.

Minutes from closed school-board meetings, and the files of district consultant Beatriz Arias are both contained in these logs.

The two parties now are in the process of taking depositions from a number of key "custodians," or potential witnesses.

Civil law permits 10 custodian depositions to be taken by each party. Each additional deposition must be cleared by the court.

Futterman and Howard lawyers had requested permission to conduct 88 depositions.

Mason granted each side permission to take up to 40 depositions.

Franczek Sullivan, the Chicago-based firm representing the district, does not plan to take many more than 10 depositions, said Michael Hernandez, an attorney at the firm.

All depositions must be completed by Oct. 1, Mason said. He requested that both sides conduct more than half of their depositions by July 1.

"Don't drag your feet," he advised.

Filed in February 2005, the lawsuit claims U-46 violated the rights of black and Hispanic students by placing them in crowded, older schools; busing them farther and more often than white students; and providing them inferior opportunities.