Kudos to the Delaware federal district court judges (not bankruptcy judges) for imposing a 6 pm (Eastern) deadline for e-filing of the vast majority of court papers. The new deadline, it appears, is a move to protect the non-law lives of lawyers, judges and others tied to the court system. The specifics of the changes are described in an October 6, 2014 post at the Delaware Bankruptcy Insider from Ashby & Geddes. Let’s hope more courts make the same move to help preserve at least some time for family and other parts of life.
The news prompts a quick bit of nostalgia on one of the many ways technology changed the practice. Back in (the technological dark ages) of 1984, Fed Ex introduced “Zap mail,” which was a trade name for the antique we now call fax. Zap mail remains in memory from when I was a baby lawyer in Chicago at Katten Muchin. One of my cases was in Miami. The partner leading the case was a wonderful lawyer (Kael Kennedy), with an unfortunate penchant for last minute action. So, court filing days for that case soon became Zap mail days. Use of Zap mail entailed having a messenger in Chicago take the papers to a Fed Ex office in the Loop. The papers were then faxed to Miami, and then sent by messenger to our co-counsel.
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