Judge(s) Assigned to Case
Presiding Judge
Honorable Steven D. Merryday
Steven D. Merryday (born 1950, Palatka, Florida) is a United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida.
Biography:
Merryday graduated from the University of Florida in 1972 and from its College of Law in 1975. Upon graduating from lawschool, Merryday began his legal career in Tampa, Florida where he practiced as a litigator until 1992, when he was appointed to the bench by President George H. W. Bush.
Magistrate
Judge Mark A. Pizzo
Biography:
Judge Pizzo was appointed a United States Magistrate Judge in May 1995 and reappointed in May 2003. A Tampa native, he received his B.A. and J.D. degrees from Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana (1974 and 1977). From 1978 until 1994, he served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Tampa Division. In 1994, that office designated him as its senior litigator for the district. From 1994 until his appointment to the bench in 1995, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney. Judge Pizzo was the 1995 recipient of the Federal Bar Association's George C. Carr Memorial Award for excellence in federal practice and distinguished service to the Federal Bar. He is a master and organizing member of the Herbert G. Goldburg Criminal Law Inn of Court. And he currently serves on the Lifetime Screening Board and the Independent Compensation Committee at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute.
Case & Trial Management Preferences:
Upon consent of the parties, Judge Pizzo provides a “date certain” for trial and will set the deadlines for the filing proposed jury instructions, verdict forms, and motions in limine at the final pretrial conference. For a jury trial, he generally examines the panel and then gives counsel fifteen minutes to conduct their own examinations. Thereafter, counsel will be invited to the bench to exercise any challenges for cause. After disposing of challenges for cause, peremptory challenges will then be exercised in an alternating manner, for example: one by the Plaintiff and then one by the Defendant. Counsel are to direct challenges to the first prospective juror seated in the box and continue in the order in which the jurors were called; no strike-backs are allowed.
Parties may call chambers to check on the status of a pending matter or for procedural information. In appropriate cases, a party may file a motion to appear telephonically in non-evidentiary civil proceedings. If disputes arise during depositions Judge Pizzo does not conduct telephonic hearings; instead, the parties are directed to state the nature of their objection(s) on the record and file a written motion.
For hearings and trials, counsel are expected to stand as court is opened, recessed or adjourned, stand when the jury enters or retires from the courtroom, stand when addressing, or being addressed by, the court. Counsel should stand at the lectern while examining any witness; except that counsel may approach the Clerk's desk or the witness for purposes of handling or tendering exhibits. Counsel for each party in any case should obtain from the Clerk, in advance of trial, tabs or labels for the marking and identification of each exhibit proposed to be offered in evidence or otherwise tendered to any witness during trial. Counsel must also prepare a list of such exhibits, in sequence, with a descriptive notation sufficient to identify each separately numbered exhibit. Copies of the list are to be provided to opposing counsel with three copies to the Court at the commencement of trial. See Local Rule 5.04.
In accordance with Fed. R. Civ. P. 54, a prevailing party must first file with the Clerk of Court a verified bill of costs. Only after the Clerk has made an initial determination as to costs may a party move the Court for judicial review.
