Court declines to delay discovery in UFC suit, but puts on some limits
Today Zuffa was hoping to delay their discovery obligations until their motion to dismiss the lawsuit is heard; the Court refused to do so, while putting limits on discovery.
John S Nash from BloodyElbow has consistently stayed on top of the lawsuit, and continued to here, breaking the story that a Federal Court Judge in Nevada dismissed ZUFFA’s attempts to delay their discovery obligations in the multiple anti-trust lawsuits facing the MMA industry-leading UFC. The court did however limit the discovery.
The UG’s Eric Magraken provided further detail, via his Combat Sports Law blog.
Today Zuffa was hoping to stall their obligations until their motion to dismiss the lawsuit is heard but the Court refused to do so.
With Zuffa being forced to open their books, at least somewhat at this stage, the merits of the lawsuits will become clearer for the Plaintiffs in the upcoming weeks.
Today’s ruling, however, was not a one sided victory. The Court refused to outright delay Zuffa’s discovery obligations but at the same time the court ‘imposed restrictions‘ on the Plaintiffs broad discovery requests which will be in place at least until the Court has a chance to rule on Zuffa’s motion to dismiss the claims. Those hoping this lawsuit will bring Zuffa’s financials into the public eye will have to wait longer as the parties were ordered to submit a proposed form of Confidentiality and Protective Order.
As BloodyElbow’s John Nash previously reported, the Plaintiffs’ discovery requests are far reaching and include the following which Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen asked Plaintiffs’ counsel to ‘reconsider’ – http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2015/5/14/8604095/ufc-fighter-monopoloy-lawsuit-zuffa-files-motion-to-stay-discovery-of-15-years