Nothing will permanently free lawyers from bleary-eyed late nights cramming to get a filing stamped before a deadline, but the Third Circuit Court of Appeals is doing its part to get folks home a little early. Chief Judge Michael Chagares has long championed a more humane approach to lawyering across the country and now he’s put in a bid to make it a reality for his court.

A proposed amendment to the Third Circuit’s Local Rules would roll back the current 11:59:59 p.m. deadline for timely filings to 5:00 p.m. when the court clerk’s office closes. Enough time to go home, sit back… and start billing on another matter.

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Still, it’s better than nothing.

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More cynical observers suggest that this is an empty gesture that just pushes back the late-night work to the evening before. But the thing about lawyers is they were going to work the whole night anyway. All that’s being cut off is the neurotic final throes where the partner fiddles with the brief between 5 and midnight before ultimately deciding to go with the original version everyone approved at 4:30.

Another concern about the move is the risk of a patchwork series of rules. From Reuters:

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Public comment is due by Feb. 18. On Twitter, reaction was mixed, with some lawyers complaining it was unnecessary and could create confusion by adopting an earlier deadline in one circuit than the rest of the federal appellate courts.

“If this is across the board, it would be great,” Richard Heppner, an assistant law professor at Duquesne University, said in an interview. “But there’s a real trap for the unwary practitioner.”

But isn’t that true of all Local Rules? This isn’t appreciably different than the days when courts demanded an arbitrary number of courtesy copies to count as properly filed. We all survived. It only takes about 5 minutes out of your day to skim the Local Rules and make sure you’re not doing anything stupid. That’s billed time well spent.

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And if the lack of uniformity is such a hang-up, perhaps the rest of the federal judiciary can follow suit and join the 5 p.m. standard. Just a thought.

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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3rd Circuit, Courts, Work-life balance