Opposing party notices you of a deposition without conferring with you as required by Los Angles County Superior Court Local Rules, Appendix 3.A(e)(2), {“In scheduling depositions, reasonable consideration should be given to accommodating schedules of opposing counsel and deponent.”}, and had it served it over the holidays via mail,and you inform opposing party that you are not available on said date, at which point opposing counsel emails/faxes a letter to you early the following afternoon with a few new dates where he is available, and states that if a response is not given/a date picked from the ones provided for said deposition by 8am the following morning, the he will be filing a Motion to Compel. Are there any problems with this scenario?? Citations would be useful.
Opposing counsel does not have to confer with you in advance of setting depositions, counsel simply has to consider your schedule in setting the deposition. State law allows the noticing party to set it at a time, place, and on a date selected by the noticing party (with some restrictions).
You don't give enough information here. What date was the deposition set for? When did you advise the noticing attorney you couldn't make it? Since depositions require 10 days notice (plus 5 for mailing), the timeframe is much smaller than for written discovery.
The threat of a motion to compel makes me think that you notified opposing counsel that you couldn't attend on the eve of the deposition, or within only a couple of days. If that is the case, opposing counsel is concerned that you will sandbag again, delay getting a date, or simply not agree to a date.
It should not take you long to review your calendar and determine if any of the dates counsel has proposed would be good for you. Do it, and call counsel and agree to the date so that counsel can re-notice the deposition.
Scheduling the deposition is not the same as meeting and conferring over written discovery (if you are the same person who posted the question about a fax one afternoon demanding response by the next morning.)
My colleague has a very good analysis. There is also something called "professional courtesy" which attorneys owe each other. It is not in the law, but in practice, that attorneys accomodate each other, but are somewhat less concerned with individuals representing themselves.
As my colleague states, check the dates for your availabliity and save your energy for the fights to come in litigation as the case moves forward.
