As we previously mentioned, the Court has suspended all non-emergency jury trials until April 5, 2021, and has stated that, at least initially, it will permit only one jury trial to proceed at a time.
The Court tried repeatedly to re-start jury trials in November and continuing through early February—and got so far as jury selection—but ultimately all of the cases scheduled for trial either resolved or were delayed, mostly due to coronavirus concerns among the parties. At this point, the Court has recognized that, once jury trials restart, the trial calendar is looking extremely congested.
The Court Has Not Canceled All April Jury Trials (Yet)
Currently, there are two separate 5-day jury trials set to begin on April 5, and all indications are that at least one of them will proceed:
- Adams v. Klein, C.A. No. 18-1330-RGA (D. Del.) (§ 10(b) securities/fraud action before Judge Andrews)
- JHL Pharmaceuticals, LLC v. PuraCap Laboratories, LLC, C.A. No. 18-553-MN (D. Del) (contract action before Judge Noreika)
Judge Andrews issued an order in Adams last week setting forth that the Court has not canceled April trials yet, and placing the case on standby because Judge Noreika's JHL action is set for trial:
The Court as an entity has not decided to cancel jury trials in April. But the Court’s anticipated capacity for when jury trials restart is one at a time. Right now, there is a jury trial with Judge Noreika scheduled for April 5th that takes precedence over this one. Thus, if the parties agree, this case will continue on standby for a jury trial on April 5.
He also noted that he is generally against proceeding with witnesses offering testimony to the jury remotely:
As for the dispute about non-party witnesses, I am not inclined to have them testify remotely. If they were deposed and are “unavailable” within the meaning of the rules, relevant portions of their depositions may be presented. If there is some witness for whom there is a good argument remote testimony should be allowed, the party requesting the remote testimony should submit a letter explaining why such testimony is necessary and why not allowing it to be provided remotely would be unreasonable.
As to Judge Noreika's JHL case, trial is still set to go forward, and the parties filed a letter today seeking guidance as to how the trial will be held (remotely, in-person or otherwise) and raising the possibility of having witnesses offer testimony by video.
Four Trials Still Set for Remainder of April
Beyond the two listed above, there are four trials that remain on the calendar for the rest of April 2021:
- April 12: K2M, Inc. v. OrthoPediatrics Corp., C.A. No. 17-61-RGA (D. Del.): It looks like this 5-day jury trial is still set to start on April 12.
- April 14: Joseph William Luster v. PuraCap Pharmaceutical, LLC, C.A. No. 19-1522-MN (D. Del.): A 2-day jury trial is set to begin on April 14, although this would overlap with K2M's 5-day trial, so one of the two may be delayed.
- April 26: USA v. Tyshaun Blue, C.A. No. 20-63-RGA (D. Del.): This 3-day criminal jury trial was scheduled recently, on February 12, 2021, so it seems likely to go forward absent a conflict with the Colon action below.
- April 26: USA v. Omar Morales Colon, C.A. No. 17-47-LPS (D. Del.): It looks like this criminal trial before Judge Stark is still set to go forward, although I imagine it may be delayed in favor of the Blue trial.
The Court did, however, recently cancel or reschedule two other April 2021 jury trials:
- April 12: Koninklijke KPN N.V. v. Sierra Wireless, Inc., C.A. No. 17-90-LPS (D. Del.): Chief Judge Stark canceled this trial and granted a motion to stay; defendant filed the motion after a status conference prompted by an order from the Court.
- April 12: 3G Licensing, S.A. v. HTC Corporation, C.A. No. 17-83-LPS (D. Del.): Last week, Chief Judge Stark rescheduled this jury trial to September 13, 2021.
[Note: If you came here via Google, see our most up-to-date posts under the Trial Calendar tag.]
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