Friday, August 7, 2015

Circuit apologizes for delay

What happens when, due to a bureaucratic mix-up, an appeal gets "lost" and languishes for five years... The Seventh Circuit ends its decision here, like this:
Image result for oops lost it
We close with an apology to the parties. After the Rule 54 statements were received, the papers were placed in the wrong stack and forgotten. The court’s internal system for
tracking cases under advisement does not include remands from the Supreme Court, so the normal process of alerts and ticklers failed. We will see to it that this is fixed. That may be small comfort to these litigants and their lawyers, but at least some good will come from the delay.
More details here: Appeals Court Apologizes for Misplacing Case for Five Years and 7th Circ. Apologizes For Losing Track Of Case For 5 Years