In the legal battle between Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), both parties have taken an important step towards a ruling by Judge Analisa Torres.

According to defense attorney and former federal prosecutor James K. Filan’s tweet, both Ripple and the SEC filed their summary judgment briefs early yesterday.

As NewsBTC reported, there are several important deadlines coming up in the next few days.

Originally, the two disputants had to file their aforementioned pleadings by November 30. On December 2, Ripple and the SEC were scheduled to meet to jointly discuss redactions before a release was scheduled for December 5.

Finally, on December 22, the collective motions to seal all documents related to the summary judgment motions were to be filed.

However, as Filan wrote on Twitter, the early filings could push that timeline forward a few days. “This suggests redacted responses will be filed sometime this Friday, 12/2,” Filan claimed.

The attorney explained that this assumption is based on the facts that the redacted summary judgment motions were due on 9/19 but filed on 9/17, and the redacted oppositions were due on 10/24 but filed on 10/21.

“So, expect the redacted replies to be filed early as well,” Filan said.

Ripple Vs. SEC: When Will It End?

In recent days, speculation has arisen that December 5, and now possibly December 2, could be a landmark date for the likelihood of a settlement between Ripple and the SEC.

At the center of the speculation are the Hinman documents, which could be a strong bargaining chip for Ripple.

In order to keep these documents secret and prevent a broader impact on overall crypto market regulation, the SEC could agree to a settlement.

To that extent, what is or is not redacted could be critical in the summary judgment briefs. If the Hinman documents are not made public as evidence by Ripple, it would be a strong sign that the company has the upper hand.

However, one voice of the XRP community, attorney Fred Rispoli, doesn’t believe it will end so soon. According to him, it is unlikely that the SEC will agree to release the Hinman emails without a court order.

“And that ruling isn’t until after the Jan. 9 sealing response motions,” Rispoli said.

Based on that, the attorney believes the dates will have minimal impact on a potential settlement. To that extent, he does not expect it to happen before the end of January:

I don’t think SEC settles until it “has” to. To me, that is most likely when (1) emails go public; (2) SEC experts are excluded; or (3) SEC loss at SJ. Looking like (1) is earliest possibility in late Jan/Feb ’23.

At press time, the XRP was trading at $0.3929. After the FTX crash on 05 November, the price is still in no-man’s land.