I hope you don’t think I am harping on this recent change in the procedure for designating a case to the Business Court, but on Friday Judge Jolly withdrew his Order in the Kight v. Ganymede Holdings II, Inc. case, recognizing that it was "a change in the previous practice relative to certain time requirements for designating an action as a mandatory."  It’s just not fair to change the rules in the middle of the game.

[If you haven’t followed this important issue, up until recently a plaintiff had thirty days after filing his or her complaint to file a Notice of Designation to the Business Court.   Beginning August 10th, Judge Jolly said that the Notice of Designation had to be filed at the same time as the Complaint (or the Amended Complaint if the amended document raises Business Court issues)].

Judge Jolly’s New Order lets Kight slip into the Business Court despite filing his Notice of Designation twenty-seven days after filing his Amended Complaint.  Nevertheless, Judge Jolly sent up a clear signal that the rule has now changed.  He said in the New Order in the Kight case that:

Notwithstanding any previous rulings of this court or any procedural guidelines that may be found on the North Carolina Business Court website or elsewhere on the Internet, as of this date and pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-45.4(d)(1), any Notice of Designation by a plaintiff, third-party plaintiff or petitioner for judicial review that is based upon a complaint, third-party complaint or petition for judicial review, respectively (collectively, "Complaint") that is not filed on the same day as the Complaint shall not be considered filed contemporaneously with the Complaint and will be deemed untimely.

New Order ¶2.

This should be the last word on that now vanished thirty days.