MELLENDER v. DANE COUNTY

STEPHEN CROCKER, Magistrate Judge

The court has received a letter from defendants, addressed to plaintiff, stating that "we have agreed to extend the due date of your reply brief in support of plaintiff's motion for summary judgment from March 5, 2007, to March 12, 2007." As the parties should know, they may not agree amongst themselves to extend deadlines. Because the schedule provided in the preliminary pretrial conference order is intended to serve the needs of not just the parties but the court as well, the court must approve all requests for more time.

The court has not yet received a motion from plaintiff for an enlargement of time to file his reply brief, perhaps because he believed erroneously that it was sufficient to obtain an agreement from defendants. However, it appears that such a motion is inevitable once plaintiff realizes that he must file one. In the interest of efficiency and because defendants' motion for summary judgment is not ripe until March 22, 2007, the time for plaintiff to file his reply brief in support of his motion for summary judgment is EXTENDED to March 12, 2007.

Plaintiff should use this time wisely; no further extensions will be granted. Plaintiff should be aware as well that this extension does not affect other deadlines in this case. Plaintiff now has two submissions due on March 12: his reply in support of his own motion for summary judgment and his response to defendants' motion for summary judgment.