On October 31, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) proposed an amendment to Local Civil Rule 7, which governs general motion practice before the Court. On December 1, 2024, the amendment took effect. The result was the deletion of Rule 7(k) from the Local Civil Rules. Rule 7(k) instructed opposing counsel to comply with Roseboro v. Garrison, 528 F.2d 309 (4th Cir. 1975), by including in any dispositive motion addressed to a pro se litigant a warning containing the following statements:
(1) the pro se party is entitled to file a response opposing the motion within twenty-one days;
(2) the Court could dismiss the action if the pro se party does not file a response;
(3) the pro se party must identify all facts with which they disagree and must set forth his or her version of the facts with appropriate support; and
(4) the pro se party is also entitled to file a legal brief in opposition to the one filed by the moving party.
The amendment to Rule 7 comes in the wake of Milla v. Brown, 109 F.4th 222 (4th Cir. 2024), in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit questioned whether the warning requirement set forth in Rule 7(k) actually complied with Roseboro and other circuit precedent. Ultimately, the Court of Appeals concluded that "[t]he court must provide this notice in a manner that is 'sufficiently clear to be understood by a pro se litigant and calculated to appraise him of what is required under Rule 56.'" Milla, 109 F.4th at 225-27 (citing Davis v. Zahradnick, 600 F.2d 458, 460 (4th Cir. 1979)) (emphasis added).
The removal of the warning requirement in Rule 7(k) is intended to alleviate the risk of confusion that may result from a pro se litigant receiving incongruent warnings from the Court and opposing counsel regarding the potential consequences of a dispositive motion.
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