Smartbiz Motion to Stay Discovery ‘Not Justified in Fact or Law’: Fla. AG

The Office of Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) opposes Smartbiz Telecom’s Feb. 3 motion to stay discovery in the state’s robocall complaint against the defendant (see 2302060033) “because it will create case management problems and is not justified in fact or law,” said its opposition Tuesday (docket 1:22-cv-23945) in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in Miami. Smartbiz requests a stay of “indefinite length” until the court has ruled on its motion to dismiss, it said. But that motion “is unlikely to be dispositive and does not warrant delaying discovery in this case,” it said. Smartbiz’s assertions the AG’s discovery requests are overly broad and unduly burdensome -- one of the bases of the defendant’s motion to stay -- are “without factual support,” said the opposition. These objections “can be efficiently litigated during the pendency” of the motion to dismiss, “and do not present a reason to stay this case,” it said. "The existence of a dispositive motion may weigh in favor of a stay, but there is no rule requiring a stay while such a motion is pending," said the AG. Though it's not necessary for the court to decide the motion to dismiss to determine whether the motion to stay discovery should be granted, the court needs to "take a preliminary peek" at the motion's merits to dismiss "to see if it appears to be clearly meritorious and truly case diapositive," it said. A stay "will likely impact the case deadlines" the court put in place, and Smartbiz "has not justified the delay," it said.