Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 8/6/18


Agri Stats Inc. has been handed a set-back in its defense against allegations of conspiring with poultry processors to fix prices between 2008 and 2016, according to documents filed in court.

Agri Stats had asked the U.S. District court for the Northern District of Illinois to accept documents it had already gathered for an earlier Department of Justice inquiry, which ran from 2010 to 2012 and touched on some of the same issues as the current lawsuit. It contended that those documents would address the issues in the ongoing case and save the company from further expensive information-gathering, costing between $1.2 million and $1.7 million.

The judge disagreed, however, pointing out that the DOJ investigation was more limited in scope and in timeframe than the eight-year period covered in the lawsuit. Agri Stats had not met the legal standard required to be excused from the additional information requests, and the company’s offer of documentation already assembled did not adequately answer the plaintiff’s questions.

The judge did order all parties to continue negotiating over the documents request, so that sufficient information is provided without unduly burdening Agri Stats with the cost.

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