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Opinions and Expert Testimony
understand the nuances applicable in state court. Almost one million cases are filed in federal court each year, but there are 30 million civil cases filed in the state courts. This means that the state dockets are usually crowded, and many jurisdictions have their own rules about timing and procedure to help them manage the much larger dockets.
Here are two examples of how the state’s procedural rules differ from their federal counterparts:
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● Computation of Filing Deadlines - The federal and state rules often differ slightly in the computation of certain filing deadlines. Although differing slightly can mean they differ by a single day, but miscalculating a deadline can be catastrophic for your case. Lawyers must always carefully review computational rules, no matter how many times they have handled similar cases.
● Commencement of Action - Even in states where the procedural rules are modeled closely on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, lawyers must still be able to interpret the requirements of both. For example, in Kentucky, the state and federal rules provide that a civil action is commenced with the filing of a complaint. But Kentucky’s rule adds “and the issuance of a summons or warning order herein in good faith.” This could be extremely important in cases involving statutes of limitations. Filing a complaint in federal court right before the deadline is sufficient. Yet under Kentucky law, the rules require several additional steps to be deemed filed - such as issuing and serving a
summons.
4. Judge’s Standing Orders - In both state and federal court, judges often have their own standing orders which enumerate procedure in that judge’s courtroom. These are very important, since they often include things such as the judge’s preference for type and font, page limitations, scheduling concerns, and whether the judge wants paper motions delivered to chambers.
5. Case-Specific Rules - There are specific rules for certain kinds of civil cases. Each federal district court has adopted local patent rules, for instance, which govern patent cases.
