With the SEC v. Ripple lawsuit being a quite complicated case, Filan has implicitly warned that the case is unlikely to see a summary judgment ruling this year.
A settlement between Ripple Labs and the Securities and Exchange Commission has always been widely expected as it is in almost any other case in the United States.
Pre-trial settlements are the “du jour” in SEC litigation as 96% of all SEC cases are settled before trial, of which 60% before litigation and 90% in discovery.
Taking into account that the SEC wants a trial by jury in the SEC v. Ripple, according to a recent filing by the defendants, settlement is increasingly out of the question.
Both parties were ordered by the court to reach an agreement regarding the summary judgment briefing schedule this week.
In that context, securities law attorney and XRP community member James K. Filan has explained how the summary judgment timeline will work, according to the legal proceedings in New York.
“I thought I would weigh in because Judge Torres has a particular and very complicated process that must be completed before the motions for summary judgment can even be filed. The point of this thread is to help you understand that this is a longer process than you may realize”.
The bureaucratic details shared on Twitter were meant to conclude that the SEC is highly likely to delay as much as possible by not wavering the requirements of pre-motion letters and the exchange of Rule 56.1 Statements of Facts.
In addition, expert discovery has been re-opened until May 13 for the Metz deposition and the filing of the Ripple defendants’ supplemental rebuttal report.
Filan added that the parties might challenge some of the other parties’ experts, although as part of the summary judgment process, and the amicus briefs still have to be reviewed.
The attorney then shared his prediction as to a summary judgment briefing schedule, which completion would be either in October or November.
“I don’t want you to be disappointed when the briefing schedule comes out. I don’t think we will see a schedule that contemplates briefing beginning in June. I think that a more realistic timeline for summary judgment motions would be opening briefs in either July or August and then all briefing completed by either October or November”.
James K. Filan further stated that the decision regarding the Hinman documents and emails is likely to be made while the summary judgment motions are pending. This explains why Ripple said they want to move on to summary judgment before that issue is decided.
As for reference, the attorney reminded that Magistrate Judge Torres has recently issued a summary judgment ruling in a case involving gender discrimination claims against Goldman Sachs. The “complicated case” saw the briefing being completed in November 2021, but the court ruling was only issued in mid-March of this year.
With the SEC v. Ripple lawsuit being a quite complicated case, Filan has implicitly warned that the case is unlikely to see a summary judgment ruling this year.
Applying the same waiting period between briefing completion and a court ruling in the Goldman Sachs case to the XRP lawsuit, if attorney Filan prediction of briefing conclusion by October-November 2022 is right, then the XRP case would be over by February-March 2023.
