Supreme Court Takes Case on State-Federal Pleading Rule Conflict

The US Supreme Court said Monday that it will weigh in on an alleged conflict between state medical malpractice pleading requirements and federal procedural rules.

The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in a July 5 unpublished opinion, affirmed dismissal of the medical claim because plaintiff Harold Berk hadn’t complied with Delaware’s affidavit of merit requirement. That mandate doesn’t conflict with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure’s pleading requirements, the court said.

The federal rules say that filing a complaint is all that’s necessary to “commence” a suit in federal court.

Berk argued in his petition for Supreme ...