Michigan registers at the high end of the serious response scale to things being filed late in court with the jailing by Wayne County Circuit Judge Tim Kenny of court reporter Paulette Martin for contempt for missed deadlines in a case in which the transcript was due last July. Martin served two and a half weeks of a 30 day sentence before Kenny released her. The Free Press story is here.
Meanwhile in New Jersey, a federal judge has fined a New Jersey law firm $500 a day for future late failings, based on its "habitual" late filing of briefs in Social Security appellate matters. The apparent trigger was a filing more than a month late, for which a $13,500 fine was imposed:
This Court has tried everything within its power and creativity to cajole, prod, warn, exhort, and practically beg this law firm to take seriously the deadlines that are needed for the Court to decide its cases. No case can begin without a plaintiff's brief.
"Yet, over and over and over again, this firm does not file its brief until this Court is required to take time out of its busy schedule to order counsel to file," she continued. "At this point, the refusal to file on time verges on the contumacious and is, regrettably, disrespectful of Court time and the duties of counsel to proceed without the need for the Court to become a nursemaid."
The sanctions were entered jointly and severally against the firm and its partners; the cost may not be passed on to clients. In cases where the firm's fees are paid under the Equal Access to Justice Act, such funds may not be used to pay the sanctions. The firm was also ordered to meet with the clients whose cases are before the judge and explain that the case will be dismissed if the firm runs afoul of court rules, and to file a certification with the court that they have done so.
