Thus, if a plaintiff fails to respond to a motion for summary judgment, on all or a subset of the claims, the Court will order the plaintiff to show cause why the claim should not be considered abandoned. In either case, the Court should not have to waste valuable judicial resources researching and deciding the issue. Either the plaintiff does not care about the claim enough to form an argument, or the plaintiff affirmatively intends to abandon the claim. Still, when the plaintiff fails to respond to a motion for summary judgment on all or some claims, one of two things is true (or both). Because the defendant bears the burden of establishing its entitlement to summary judgment, the Seventh Circuit has instructed district courts not to summarily hold for the defendant when the plaintiff fails to respond to the motion on all or some claims. This occurs, for example, when a defendant moves for summary judgment, and the plaintiff fails to respond to the motion for summary judgment on one or all of its claims. But critically, merely failing to respond to a motion for summary judgment is not evidence of abandonment of the claim. ![]() If the plaintiff evidences an intent to abandon a claim, it will be deemed waived. at *27 (“erely contradicting an opposing party’s developed argument with a single, unsupported sentence is not an argument.”). And when responding to an argument, mere contradiction rather than a developed argument results in waiver. Additionally, when an argument effectively requires analogous reasoning (think qualified immunity) but the brief contains no analogous reasoning, the Court may find waiver. 28, 2014) (“he Court notes that parties should not view judges as bloodhounds who are merely given a whiff of an argument and then expected to search the record high and low in an effort to track down evidence to locate and capture a party’s argument.”). It is perfunctory, and the Court will not consider it. ![]() For example, a two-sentence “argument” that cites no legal authority is not a legal argument. Furthermore, perfunctory and undeveloped arguments are waived. If a party fails to respond to an opponent’s argument, the Court will find that the argument is waived for the purpose of the pending motion (but not for the purpose of future motions). Additionally, if after reviewing an opponent’s motion, a party wishes to abandon a claim, that party should affirmatively stipulate to that concession on the record. If the parties do not care about an argument, or a claim, enough to spend time litigating that argument or claim, then the Court should not be expected to shoulder the responsibility for them. Furthermore, if attorneys raise an argument, the Court expects that they will do their own research and developed that argument. ![]() Attorneys-not the Court-are responsible for making their own arguments.
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