Where a plaintiff failed to serve defendants within the 90-day period required by Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(m), the rule gives district courts discretion to grant an extension even without a showing of good cause. Background The plaintiffs served process ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Practice Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Where a claimant’s defamation suit was dismissed with a warning that further frivolous pleadings might justify sanctions, her subsequently filed claims based on new conduct were not frivolous and did not warrant sanctions. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Paul V. Niemeyer Sanctions

Where a naturalized citizen whose citizenship was revoked in 2016 waited until 2018 before attempting to collaterally attack his 2010 guilty plea on drug charges, and the record showed he could have discovered facts supporting his claim in 2016, his ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Where the district court sanctioned a woman and her attorney for filing a ­complaint based upon allegedly privileged communications, but the privilege applied only to a defamation claim and not a claim for tortious interference, and the district court failed ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Paul V. Niemeyer Sanctions

Where a detainee files a motion for compassionate release, it would be error for the district court to use a bright-line rule that accepts only the CDC’s highest risk conditions as a basis for grating the motion. Such a holding ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Where a high school drama teacher alleged the school board failed to pay him for his tech work because of his race, but he had been paid a theater director supplement and he did not allege that any other performing ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Employment Discrimination Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Where West Virginia law is unclear on the amount of coverage that must be provided when an exclusion in an automobile liability insurance policy violates West Virginia Code § 33-6-31(a) because it would deny coverage to a permissive user of ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Insurance Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Where a regulation requires the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, to notify an applicant of the need to provide biometrics, such as photographs and fingerprints; provide the applicant with a biometrics notice; and provide instructions for producing biometrics, the ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Immigration Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Where a practicing Muslim detainee argued that he should not be forced to purchase his prayer oils from a commissary that sells “swine and idols” because Islam prohibits buying religious items from such vendors, the corrections department properly prevailed at ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Where the Supreme Court has held that commentary to the sentencing guidelines, even when the related guideline is unambiguous, is authoritative and binding unless it is inconsistent with law or the guideline itself, and the court has not overruled that ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Paul V. Niemeyer