We posted a few weeks ago that the Court instituted a new 5pm filing deadline, starting September 1.
We're now past the August 31 filing deadline, so the 5pm deadline applies for filings going forward. Just a friendly reminder!
Entries for tag: DED
The District of Delaware announced today that it is instituting a 5pm filing deadline for all documents other than initial pleadings. Chief Judge Connolly issued an order revising section (F) of the Court's CMECF Procedures (part of the Court's other local rules):
Effective September 1, 2022, section (F) of the Court's Revised Administrative Procedures Governing Filing and Service by Electronic Means shall be further revised as follows, to reflect a new filing and service deadline of 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time for all documents other than initial pleadings:
(F) Deadlines
Filing documents electronically does not in any way alter any filing deadlines. Aside from initial pleadings, all electronic transmissions of documents (including, but not limited to, motions, briefs, appendices, and discovery responses) must be completed by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, in order to be considered timely filed and served that day. All electronic transmissions of initial pleadings must be completed prior to midnight Eastern Time, in order to be considered timely filed that day. When CM/ECF calculates a deadline, it will include intermediate weekends and holidays as prescribed in Fed.R.Civ.P. 6.
That's a lot of text. You may be wondering: did anything else change? No. The text is identical to the current version other than ...
We're a day late on this, but it could be major news for Delaware patent litigators: the Western District of Texas is ending its practice of sending all patent cases filed in Waco to Judge Alan Albright.
Previously, all cases filed in Waco, TX were assigned to Judge Albright, a former patent litigator. He has favorable rules for resolving cases quickly and putting pressure on accused infringers, although I'm not sure that they are quite as tilted towards patentees as Law360 makes them out to be.
According to Law360, Judge Albright received 23% of all patent lawsuits in 2021. That's a lot!
We'll have to see …
We wrote recently to report about the District of Delaware FBA's annual meeting, where the Court updated local practitioners about the state of the Court and upcoming changes. We promised an update when the Court issues its 2022 Annual Report.
Well, here is that update! The report is attached below in full. Some highlights include:
- The report notes that the last five judges nominated to the District of Delaware took their oaths of office and entered duty within two weeks of confirmation by the Senate. The Senate confirmed Judge Williams on July 20, 2022. Doing the math, if history repeats itself, we should see Judge Williams start by Wednesday August 3, 2022. That's good news …
Law360 reports that the senate confirmed incoming District of Delaware Judge Gregory B. Williams today. Congratulations, Judge Williams!!
Today was the Federal Bar Association's annual luncheon, an annual event where the Chief Judges give updates on the status of Delaware's District and Bankruptcy courts.
This year's event was the first in-person meeting since the start of the COVID lockdowns. It was great to see everyone again in person!
Attendance was relatively low. Some speculated that this may be due to expiring FBA memberships. My theory is that there may have been an issue with the invitation e-mail (I never received it myself, and I'm a current FBA member).
In any case, I wanted to post some highlights and interesting facts from the speakers today, as we did for the virtual event last year:
- The …
The District of Delaware announced today that Chief Magistrate Judge Thynge is set to retire in March 31, 2023:
The United States District Court for the District of Delaware announces that Chief Magistrate Judge Mary Pat Thynge has informed the Court of her intention to retire, effective March 31, 2023, ending more than 30 years of exemplary judicial service.
Judge Thynge is the longest serving U.S. Magistrate Judge in the history of the District of Delaware. She began her tenure as a Magistrate Judge of the Court in June of 1992, after 16 years in private practice.
Judge Thynge will be sorely …
According to the Federal Circuit's website on Thursday, Judge Stark has been officially sworn in to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. According to their post, he was sworn in on the Lincoln Bible, held by his wife Beth Stark. Congratulations again to Judge Stark!
As we discussed on Thursday, the Court is still in the process of re-assigning Judge Stark's cases, with the majority so far going to other D. Del. Article III judges. Judge Stark still has a number of cases, including for example C.A. No. 19-01938-LPS, where he issued an order on Monday asking for briefing following a status report from the …
Following the Court's announcement of a transition plan last week, the Court issued an implementing standing order on Wednesday, and today we saw a wave of reassignments from Judge Stark cases—all to Judge Andrews.
A number of cases were re-assigned, including:
- American Axle & Manufacturing, Inc. v. Neapco Holdings LLC, C.A. No. 15-1168 (D. Del.)
- Future Link Systems, LLC v. Amlogic Holdings, Ltd., C.A. No. 21-634 (D. Del.)
- Finjan LLC v. Trustwave Holdings, Inc., C.A. No. 20-371 (D. Del.)
- Celanese International Corporation v. Anhui Jinhe Industrial Co., Ltd., C.A. No. 20-1775 (D. Del.)
In each case, Judge Andrews ordered the parties to produce a status report within …
The Court announced it's plan for Judge Stark's departure today, and it includes some bold moves.
All attorneys who practice in D. Del. should read the announcement in full—it's not that long—but here are some highlights.
Pending Mediations Will Be Canceled
Unlike previous transitions, most district court cases will be impacted, because magistrate judge referrals for mediation and all pending mediations will be canceled except in select instances:
Other than mediations in bankruptcy appeals or unless specifically directed otherwise by the Court, all referrals to Magistrate Judges for alternate dispute resolution will be vacated and all currently scheduled mediations will be canceled.
Thus, mediations in non-judge-Stark cases will be canceled. …
