There’s a lot of side quests when it comes to Diamond’s Chapter 11/Chapter 7 drama. There’s numerous lawsuits that have spun out of it, dozens depending on how you want to count them. One of the more dramatic ones is Alliance Entertainment‘s lawsuit against Diamond and its associates.
In April 2025, Alliance Entertainment submitted a complaint against Diamond accusing Diamond of “fraud” and “deception” as far as their relationship with Wizards of the Coast, the company behind Magic: The Gathering. Wizards did not continue its distribution agreement past December 2024 and didn’t inform Alliance. Diamond and its representatives actually attempted to obfuscate it and keep it from Alliance during the deal.
That lawsuit has been slow, but ongoing, and now we have the next steps as it looks like there might be an agreement when it comes to discovery.
Discovery is the process where documents need to be handed over to lawyers allowing them to gather evidence. Emails, documents, internal chats, those are all examples of discovery and it can involve millions of documents depending on the lawsuit.
The following is what’s proposed and differs slightly from the original proposed dates.
The Parties shall make their initial disclosures pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(1) on or before March 10, 2026.
(a) Discovery Requests. The Parties shall serve all document requests, interrogatories, and requests for admissions on or before March 16, 2026.
(b) Substantial Document Production Completion Date. Document production shall be substantially completed by August 31, 2026.
(c) Fact Discovery Cut Off. Except for Rule 26(a)(1) disclosures, all fact discovery
in this case will be completed on or before October 31, 2026. Fact depositions may be taken at any time prior to the expiration of the fact discovery deadline.
(d) Privilege Logs. Privilege logs shall be produced in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure so as to be completed within fourteen (14) business days of the related document production. Privileged communications occurring after April 29, 2025, need not be included on a privilege log.
(e) Experts. The Parties do not presently intend to call any expert witnesses. To the extent that changes, the Parties will meet and confer to discuss deadlines pertaining to expert discovery.
Also mentioned:
3. The Parties will submit a confidentiality order and ESI Protocol to the Court for approval on or before April 3, 2026.
4. Motions to join other parties, and to amend or supplement the pleadings, shall be filed on or before June 1, 2026.
5. Dispositive motions by any party are to be filed by November 30, 2026. Answer briefs in opposition thereto are to be filed by December 30, 2026. Reply briefs are to be filed by January 13, 2027.
6. A hearing on dispositive motions shall be set for February 17, 2027 at 10:00 AM in Courtroom 9-D, Baltimore – Judge Rice.
7. Parties must file pre-trial statements in conformity with Local Bankruptcy Rule 7016-1(b) within thirty (30) days of the Court’s ruling on dispositive motions.
8. Trial time estimate four (4) days.
This is a pretty big step for this case to proceed and looks like we’ll get an actual trial some time in 2027.
Check out the full documents below:
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Source: Graphic Policy
