District judge Joseph J. Farnan Jr. has announced that he will retire from the bench on July 31st:
"After 25 years of dedicated service as a United States District Judge for the District of Delaware, and being fully eligible for retirement on June 15, 2010, the Honorable Joseph J. Farnan, Jr. today submitted his letter of retirement to President Barack Obama. Judge Farnan plans to leave his office on July 31, 2010 and return to the practice of law. During his tenure on the bench, Judge Farnan was pivotal in cementing the Court's reputation as a national venue for complex litigation. His wit and unique perspective will be sorely missed by his colleagues, Court personnel and federal practitioners alike."
As most everyone is aware by now, new amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure became effective as of December 1, 2009 that change the way that deadlines are computed under the rules. The District Court of Delaware recently posted on its website, the following information regarding the computation time:
TIME (COMPUTATION OF TIME): Effective 12/1/2009, CM/ECF will no longer exclude intermediate weekends and holidays when calculating deadlines less than 11 days. Deadlines will be calculated in accordance with the changes to Fed.R.Civ.P.6 (i.e., 5 day deadlines will become 7 day deadlines, 10 and 15 day deadlines will become 14 day deadlines, etc.). CM/ECF will add 3 calendar days for mailing, as prescribed in the Administrative Procedures for Filing and Service by Electronic Means.
The District Court has also posted proposed amendments to the local rules for comment. These new local rules were drafted to address the December amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and other court practices and procedures. Some proposed changes include the following:
- The addition of Rule 5.1(b) which states that when computing time periods under the federal rules, the clerk's office "shall be deemed inaccessible" any time when it is closed due to inclement weather.
- The rules that contained certain time deadlines were changed to conform to the federal rules including changes to the 10 day time period for filing an answering brief to 14 days and the 5 day period for filing a reply brief to 7 days.
- The proposal also changes Rule 7.1.3(a)(4) to limit all opening and answering briefs to 20 pages and all reply briefs to 10 pages (the current rule allows for 40 page opening and answering briefs and 20 page reply briefs).
- Rule 7.1.5(a) is also changed to limit all motions for reargument and answering briefs to 10 pages. Also added to this rule is a provision prohibiting the filing of a motion for reargument where an objection to a Report and Recommendation by a Magistrate Judge has been filed.
- Reasonable notice for a deposition pursuant to Rule 30 has been changed to "not less than 10 days."
Other proposed changes are shown in the redline of the current District of Delaware Local Rules attached below. The public has been asked to comment on the revisions by February 1, 2010.
In a decision issued yesterday, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster offered an insightful view on the role of "Delaware counsel":
"It is of course true that Delaware counsel and forwarding counsel necessarily allocate responsibility for work, and that in some cases, the allocation may be heavily weighted towards forwarding counsel. It is also true that forwarding counsel may have primary responsibility for a matter from the client's perspective . . . . This is perfectly understandable, efficient, and appropriate. But it does not alter the Delaware lawyer's fundamental responsibility for the Delaware proceeding.
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If a Delaware lawyer signs a pleading, submits a brief, or signs a discovery request or response, it is the Delaware lawyer that takes the positions set forth therein."
In Linear Technology Corporation v. Monolithic Power Systems, Inc., C.A. No. 06-476 GMS (D. Del. Nov. 12, 2009) Judge Sleet denied Defendant's JMOL Motion on the issue of obviousness. Id. at 5. Judge Sleet noted that Fed. R. Civ. P. 50(a) requires a JMOL motion to be submitted before the case is turned over to the jury. Id. Then, Fed. R. Civ. P. 50(b) permits the renewal of the JMOL motion after the jury returns a verdict. Id. However, "[a] party dissatisfied with a jury verdict may not prevail on a post-verdict JMOL motion based on grounds not raised in a pre-verdict JMOL motion. By logical extension, when a party fails to file a pre-verdict JMOL altogether, any grounds for JMOL sought by way of a post-verdict motion must be denied." Id. (internal citations omitted).
