A cautionary tale renewed in the age of Internet and electronic court filings came out of a decision of the Federal Circuit in the patent infringement case of Two-Way Media LLC v. AT&T Inc., case number 2014-1302.  In this case, the Circuit Court upheld a district court decision denying AT&T relief from its lawyers’ (Sidley Austin) failure to timely file a notice of appeal from a $40M verdict against AT&T, after the denial of AT&T’s four motions for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL).

The twist here is that the court clerk mistakenly mislabeled the district court’s orders denying three of the JMOLs, calling them orders granting the motion to file sealed documents, which had been filed contemporaneously with the JMOLs.  However, the clerk correctly labeled the order denying the remaining JMOL and correctly labeled Plaintiff’s Bill of Costs that was filed.

Continue reading Filing Electronically? Why You Should Regularly Check The Docket →