Ever since Judge Stark was confirmed to the Federal Circuit, one of the most common questions I've received is: what will happen to his current cases, and when will we know?
There have already been some reassignments to visiting judges, but few clear indications of what may happen in the bulk of Judge Stark's current cases. We got some more hints yesterday in this oral order from Judge Stark:
ORAL ORDER: IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that this case will be reassigned to another judge and the pretrial conference (currently scheduled for March 24) and jury trial (currently scheduled for April 6) will be rescheduled by that judge. Accordingly, the current pretrial conference and trial dates are VACATED. The parties shall, nonetheless, continue to adhere to the deadlines for preparation and filing of the proposed pretrial order. The judge to whom this case is assigned will contact the parties soon after reassignment to discuss rescheduling the trial.
Osseo Imaging, LLC v. Planmeca USA Inc., C.A. No. 17-1386-LPS, D.I. 165 (D. Del. Feb. 23, 2022).
There are two interesting points here:
- The Court did not indicate who the new judge will be, and whether it will be a visiting judge.
- The Court made clear that the parties should continue to meet the current deadlines pending re-assignment, other than the scheduled pretrial conference and trial.
There has been no formal announcement yet, but the Court is obviously well aware that this will have to be dealt with in each case. In my view, there is no need for parties in every case to contact the Court about what will happen, as that will likely only slow things down (and interfere with a busy court). We'll continue to watch for indications of what may happen and will post them here as we see them.
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