Motion for Extension

Listen to this article

Civil

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Officials: POSNER, MANION, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

Motion for Extension

No. 14-1936 Ronald Robinson v. Ed Sweeny

Appellant failure to bring Rule 59(e) motion within 28 day period fatal to his claim, and the court will continue to avoid suggestion that mistakes by pro se litigants be excused.

“The Supreme Court has denied having ever “suggested that procedural rules in ordinary civil litigation be interpreted so as to excuse mistakes by those who proceed without counsel,” for “’in the long run, experience teaches that strict adherence to the procedural requirements specified by the legislature is the best guarantee of evenhanded administration of the law.’” McNeil v. United States, 508 U.S. 106, 113 (1993) (citations and footnote omitted). The first clause in the quoted passage hedges (“in ordinary civil litigation”) and the second is more conjecture than observation. If the courts intend not to excuse procedural mistakes by pro se litigants, the spirit of legal justice would seem to require that someone inform those litigants of the rudiments of federal procedure in order to prevent the kind of pitfall into which Robinson tumbled, tripped up by procedural rules likely to be unintelligible to a lay person, and as a result disabled us from deciding the merits of his case.”

Dismissed

Full Text

Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing attorney at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.