Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Pennsylvania

How do you submit an appeal to federal court decision to illegally allow a defendants failure to response of civil suit in prescribed timeframe, horribly deceitfully late?


Asked on 3/24/13, 4:26 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

You generally have 30 days to appeal the order of the trial court. Why exactly are you appealing to federal court? Is this a federal case?

This also would appear to be an interlocutory order, although I have not seen the documents. If this is the case, any appeal is premature at this stage and would be disallowed.

Finally, appeals are sophisticated things and if this is a federal case you should have a lawyer representing you. If not, then get one because you are on the fast track to losing. Judges have a bias against pro se litigants. And the procedural rules are designed to be a trap for those uneducated in the law. So for these reasons, you need legal counsel.

Finally, even if you do not think the defendant should have been allowed extra time to respond, you do not recite all the facts here. Evidently, the judge thought otherwise and these types of decisions are within the discretion of the court. The courts prefer to decide cases on their merits rather than by default and as long as there was a plausible basis for allowing the untimely response, this issue is not likely to prevail on appeal.

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Answered on 3/26/13, 5:02 pm


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