Lawyer in failed election case blames tech woes for late sanctions filing – Reuters.com

REUTERS/Axel Schmidt
(Reuters) – A Colorado lawyer contesting a $187,000 sanction tied to his failed lawsuit over the 2020 election has asked a U.S. appeals court to accept his late-filed legal challenge, as he blamed his time management and computer-related woes.
The attorney, solo practitioner Gary Fielder, missed an April 1 deadline to file his opening legal papers in the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He filed his brief a day later in which he argued that a judge's order that he and another lawyer pay legal fees to defendants in the lawsuit, including voting machine manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems Corp, was "unreasonable."
Whether the appeals court takes up his legal fees case remains to be determined. Fielder had twice earlier in February and March sought and received an extension to file the opening brief, and the appeals court set last Friday as the deadline. Failure to meet deadlines can doom a case.
"Counsel stayed up through the night to finish the necessary documents, including those attached to the opening brief," Fielder told the appeals court in a filing on Thursday. "Unfortunately, as always seems to be the case, computer problems and formatting issues caused substantial delay, as well."
The legal-fee sanction came amid a broader wave of reprimand against some lawyers who filed lawsuits questioning the outcome of the 2020 election in which Democrat Joe Biden prevailed against his Republican rival Donald Trump.
Judges in some cases questioned attorney ethics, and imposed legal fees as punishment, for bringing what were widely seen as frivolous lawsuits. Defendants in the Colorado case sought sanctions against the plaintiffs.
In November, U.S. Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter ordered Fielder and co-counsel Ernest Walker to pay fees to the defendants after dismissing an "arguably frivolous and groundless case." Walker did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Fielder told Reuters in an email that "seeking to file a motion or brief slightly out of time is not unusual." He added: "A brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals is an important matter and must be done right. Accordingly, sometimes it is just impossible to get all the pieces filed before the midnight deadline."
Fielder told the appeals court that defendants including Dominion, Meta Platforms Inc and the state of Pennsylvania did not take a position on his request to file out of time. Another defendant, Center for Tech and Civic Life, objected to the late filing.
In asking for earlier extensions, Fielder cited a pending medical procedure and the "overwhelming press of business as a solo practitioner." He also argued that accepting his out-of-time brief will not harm the defendants.
The case is Kevin O'Rourke v. Dominion Voting Systems Inc et al, 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 21-1442.
For plaintiffs: Gary Fielder and Ernest Walker
For Dominion: Stanley Garnett of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck
Read more:
Lawyer loses challenge to judge's ethics referral after failed election lawsuit
Texas regulators seek punishment for pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell
Appeals court says Sidney Powell can't dodge non-monetary sanctions
(UPDATE: Adds comment from attorney Gary Fielder.)
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