Case Evaporates When E-Filer Fails to File Complaint

An attorney recently suffered the indignity of being the first to have a case number forfeited for failure to electronically submit a complaint. Current Utah CM/ECF procedures allow counsel to submit information in advance of a complaint filing so that a case number may be reserved and a case opened to receive an electronically filed complaint. In this instance, a case number and judge assignment was made on June 6th but the attorney failed, after several notices, to file the complaint. Finally, on June 11th, the case was closed and the attorney was barred from electronically filing complaints in the future.