Benchslaps

Federal Judge Gives Attorneys An 'F'

What grade did you get in Federal Pleading 101?

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They say brevity is the soul of wit, and if that’s true, Northern District of Illinois District Judge Milton Shadur knows what he’s doing.

In a one page sua sponte order (seriously, a sua sponte benchslap? How much do you have to annoy a judge to get put in your place, sua sponte?) Judge Shadur takes down a tardy party (emphasis added).

[T]his Court issued its second sua sponte memorandum order (“Order”) to bring the attention of defense counsel to fundamental deficiencies in the second of the responsive pleadings that they had submitted on behalf of their clients — sort of a second “F” grade in Federal Pleading 101.

Oh, silly defense counsel — this is not the way to win friends and influence people.

I wonder what other shenanigans this counsel will manage to get into?

Although the Order gave defense counsel until July 10 — a bit over two weeks, which should have been more than enough — “to file an appropriate amendment to the existing responsive pleading (not a fully self-contained Amended Answer) that conforms to the Rule 8(b)(1)(B) directive,” that due date plus two additional working days have passed without the ordered response having been docketed (to say nothing of the nondelivery of the required courtesy copy to this Court’s chambers). There is no apparent justification for that further delinquency, and defense counsel are ordered to pay a $200 fine to the Clerk of Court forthwith — in addition, of course, to complying immediately with the Order.

A valuable lesson learned: Judge Shadur does not like to be kept waiting.

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Full order on the next page.

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