C. M. v. Department of Children & Families

Billable hours, client pressures, and law school debt escalate attorney stress; so too with figuring out filing deadlines. What seems simple often isn’t, and what seems complex typically is. Take this court’s order of December 27, 2016, which said that the “answer brief shall be filed within 16 days of the date of this order.” Fifteen calendar days from the order was January 11, 2017, but the Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) waited until January 17, 2017, to file its answer brief based on its view that it had 16 days plus extra time under a “standard” “three-day ‘mailbox rule.’ ”

No such rule exists,…