State Procedure Rules Don’t Belong in Federal Court, Lawyers Say

A Delaware man whose medical malpractice claim was dismissed by a federal court for noncompliance with a state procedural rule should have his suit revived, the nation’s leading trial lawyers association and others say.

The American Association for Justice and a group of law professors who teach civil procedure told the US Supreme Court in friend-of-the-court briefs filed Tuesday that federal courts shouldn’t use a plaintiff’s noncompliance with state affidavit of merit requirements to dismiss suits filed there.

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure establish a uniform set of rules for bringing cases in federal courts that must take precedence ...