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CLOSING ARGUMENT DECEMBER 9, 2019 ¦ 47
EDITORIAL BOARD
Connecticut state-court action complaint and physically open-
knew she had thirty days in ing the matter on the court’s
which to remove the case to docket), there is no practical
federal court, and, regardless of The removal process way for the defendant to file any
the return date selected by the carries with it a number of pleadings in the case, including
plaintiff, the defendant knew procedural hurdles, the vast a copy of its notice of removal to
that so long a copy of the no- majority of which are on federal court. Thus, by selecting
tice of removal was filed with the federal court side of the a return date more than thirty
the appropriate Superior Court days out from the service date,
clerk within that thirty-day ledger. a plaintiff can seek to deprive a
period, the federal right to re- defendant of its right to remove
move was preserved inviolate. the case to federal court.
The advent of e-filing in state There is a simple fix to this
court, however, has brought an end to the se- problem. The judicial branch maintains a list of
curity of that practice. With e-filing, a plaintiff items that may be filed in paper form. The branch
proceeds just as she did in the past: she prepares simply needs to include the copy of a federal no-
her summons and complaint, selects a return tice of removal among those items that can be
date, marks the summons with that date and has filed in paper form. In so doing, the branch will
the process served on the defendant. But now a cure this evident oversight in its e-filing regime
plaintiff also ostensibly controls when any filing and protect a party’s right to have its case heard in
can be made in connection with the case because, federal court when otherwise appropriate under
until she returns it to the court (i.e. by e-filing the federal law.
¦
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