Thursday, January 26, 2006

Two great Title VII limitations questions in one case

In Vance v. Potter, Judge Glen Conrad of the W.D. Va. dealt with two interesting limitations questions:

The first was whether the 90-day limitations period for filing a Title VII claim after issuance of a right to sue letter can be tolled by a lawsuit that is dismissed without prejudice. Under Virginia law, a lawyer can file a half-baked claim, take a non-suit, and get the benefit of six months under the tolling statute, Va. Code § 8.01-229. In federal court, however, on federal law claims, there is no such tolling - so, in the Vance case, the answer was no.

The second was whether a claim was timely filed when the lawyer used electronic filing, and received the e-mail from the PACER system indicating the complaint was filed, but came to find out sometime later that the complaint has not been accepted for filing by the clerk's office because of problems with his credit card, needed for the filing fee. And, the answer was yes, at least for now, while electronic filing is still relatively new.

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