Legal Malpractice Can Be a Function of Minutes

Geoff Trachtenberg

Contributor

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Attorneys know that deadlines matter, but in this age of electronic filing and 24-hour drop boxes it was just a matter of time before a court would have to address a filing that was, say, a mere six minutes late. That is what the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit had to deal with and this is what they had to say about it:

Six minutes seems trivial and unlikely to cause prejudice, but if six minutes can be excused, why not six hours or six days? As we discuss, there is a safety valve, but it lies with the district court and requires a timely application, which never materialized in this case. Ignoring established purposes and methods for extensions of time, Plaintiffs argue for different or additional relief. They are out of luck. Like statutes of limitation, statutes of repose, and other such time bars, rights may be irretrievably lost due to delay.