Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Deer Valley Unified School District

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) appeals from an award of attorney’s fees to Deer Valley Unified School District (Deer Valley). The attorney’s fees were awarded to Deer Valley because the EEOC had failed to comply with Local Rule ll(j) before the EEOC sought judicial enforcement of an administrative subpoena. Local Rule ll(j) requires parties to meet to discuss their dispute before filing any discovery motion. However, Local Rule ll(j) applies only to discovery motions and we hold that a subpoena enforcement action is not a discovery motion. Consequently, we reverse.

I.

The Phoenix district office of the EEOC received two complaints alleging that Deer Valley had discriminated in hiring on the basis of age. Consequently, the EEOC conducted an investigation into Deer Valley’s hiring policies and practices. During the investigation, the EEOC requested documents from Deer Valley that included employee lists, job applications, vacancy announcements, position descriptions and personnel files. Deer Valley complied voluntarily with five production requests, and also scheduled interviews with the EEOC for all of its key management personnel. In mid-April 1990, the EEOC…