/>iWhen a time-stamped date of a court filing is important (e.g., complying with a scheduling order filing deadline) and the Register in Chancery rejects the electronic filing for some clerical reason, what remedy is available to obtain a time-stamp from the Court for the specific date of the initial (attempted) filing? This short blog post outlines the answer provided under Court of Chancery Rule 5–which should not confused with Rule 5.1 that deals with a confidential filing.
Every filing in a newly-filed or pending civil action in the Court of Chancery needs to be electronically filed via File & ServeXpress. As discussed in a leading Delaware treatise: “The procedures and protocols applicable to electronic filing in the Court of Chancery are multifaceted and complex . . . eFilings may fail because of technical or system problems or because they are rejected by the Register in Chancery due to filing defects or failure to comply with Court Rules. In some cases, a party may not learn until the next business day that the filing has been rejected by the Register in Chancery because of a defect.” Donald J. Wolfe, Jr. & Michael A. Pittenger, Corporate & Commercial Practice in the Delaware Court of Chancery § 1.10 [at 1-33] (2d ed. 2025) (citations omitted)(cleaned up).
In practice, some of the technical problems surrounding eFiling issues can be resolved among the parties. If the parties are unable to do so, however, Rule 5 provides that:
“The Court may deem, upon satisfactory proof, that a paper was served or filed on the date of the first attempt at electronic service or filing if the first attempt was unsuccessful due to:
(1) an error in the transmission of the paper to the electronic filing system that the filer did not know about or could not resolve;
(2) a failure by the electronic filing system to process the paper;
(3) rejection by the Register in Chancery; or
(4) other technical problems.”
Ch. Ct. R. 5(e). See also Administrative Directive of the Chancellor of the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, Amended No. 2003-1, eFile Administrative Procedures, ¶ 10; Best Practices and Procedures for eFiling/Filing with the Register in Chancery, available at https://courts.delaware.gov/help/proceedings/chancery.aspx (last visited Jun. 10, 2025).
Although this option in the Court of Chancery is not well known, the Court recently relied on Rule 5 and granted Plaintiffs’ Motion to Change the Filing Date in several related new actions filed on the same date: Fritz R. Kundrun et al., v. AMCI Group, LLC, et al., C.A. No. 2025-0563 JTL; Fritz R. Kundrun, et al. v. AMCI Group, LLC, et al., C.A. No. 2025-0567 JTL; and Fritz R. Kundrun v. AMCI Group, LLC, C.A. No. 2025-0570 LM (D.I. 14; Trans. ID 76365934).
ThePlaintiffs filed these three separate complaints, in related cases, in the Court of Chancery on May 20, 2025. After the Register in Chancery rejected them the next day for clerical reasons, Plaintiffs re-filed the complaints the following day.
Plaintiffs then filed separate Motions to Change the Filing Date pursuant to Rule 5. The Court granted the motions, deeming the complaints filed on May 20, 2025. See Order, C.A. No. 2025-0563 JTL, May 28, 2025, at D.I. 4, Trans. ID 76354208; Order, C.A. No. 2025-0567 JTL, May 29, 2025, at D.I. 8, Trans. ID 76358017; Order, C.A. No. 2025-0570 LM, May 30, 2025, at D.I. 14, Trans. ID 76365934.
This post was prepared by Andrew A. Ralli, an associate in the Delaware office of Lewis Brisbois.
