Superior Court Rules Superior Court Rule 9C: Additional requirements for dispositive and discovery motions

Counsel for each of the parties shall confer in advance of filing any motion, except motions governed by Rule 9A(d) and Standing Order 1-96, and make a good faith effort to narrow areas of disagreement to the fullest extent. Counsel for the party who intends to serve the motion shall be responsible for initiating the conference, which conference shall be by telephone or in person. All such motions shall include a certificate stating that the conference required by this Rule was held, together with the date and time of the conference and the names of all participating parties, or that the conference was not held despite reasonable efforts by the moving party to initiate the conference, setting forth the efforts made to speak by telephone or in person with opposing counsel. Motions unaccompanied by such certificate will be denied without prejudice to renew when accompanied by the required certificate.

When conferring about any motion under Mass. R. Civ. P. 12, counsel for each of the parties shall make a good faith effort to narrow areas of disagreement that may be resolved through amendment of the pleading, curative action in respect to defective service, or other means related to the subject of the motion to dismiss.  When conferring about any motion under Mass. R. Civ. P. 56 or 41(b)(2) (second sentence), counsel for each of the parties shall discuss whether the moving party should refrain from making any motion qualifying for decision without a hearing under Superior Court Rule 9A(b)(5)(vi) and make a good faith effort to narrow areas of disagreement that may be resolved through amendment of the pleading, a stipulated dismissal of specified claims or parties, or otherwise.

All motions arising out of a party's response to an interrogatory or a request for admission or arising out of a party's response to, or asserted failure to comply with, a request for production of documents shall be accompanied by a brief. With respect to each interrogatory or request at issue, the brief shall set forth separately and in the following order (1) the text of the interrogatory or request, (2) the opponent's response and (3) an argument. Alternatively, the text of the interrogatory or request and the opponent's response may be provided in an appendix to the brief, as long as the brief includes an argument addressed to each interrogatory or request.  No argument may be included in the appendix.