A federal magistrate judge declined to impose the “extreme sanction” of striking revised expert reports filed by plaintiffs who were at times litigating pro se in a case against oil and gas companies over allegations the drilling tainted the plaintiffs’ water supply and devalued their land.
Although U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Martin C. Carlson of the Middle District of Pennsylvania noted the parties disputed whether the plaintiffs in Ely v. Cabot Oil & Gas had counsel “ghostwrite” some of their filings during a critical time in the litigation when they were without counsel, he said it was clear from some of the filings that the plaintiffs had to shoulder much of the prosecution of their case.
