U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab of the Western District of Pennsylvania wasn’t ordered to amend the time limit he imposed for an upcoming trial, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit did suggest that he do so.
Addressing a mandamus petition from the defendants in a complex case stemming from the bankruptcy of a nursing home in Pittsburgh, a three-judge panel on the appeals court ruled that Schwab’s seven-and-a-half-hour allotment for each side’s presentation at trial didn’t merit the extraordinary measure of a writ of mandamus, but the judges did caution that the stiff time-limit could be grounds for a retrial.
