Also known as: reasonably diligent
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The degree of care, attention, and promptness that a reasonably prudent person would exercise under the same circumstances to fulfill a legal duty or satisfy a procedural requirement.
Roland Rhodes hired attorney Regina Robinson to file a complaint before the statute of limitations expired. Robinson delayed gathering documents and missed the deadline by two weeks. The court dismissed the action as time-barred, finding that Robinson failed to act with reasonable diligence in representing her client.
Rising Sun Electronics lost a contract suit when the jury found no evidence of a key email. Three months later an employee found the email in an overlooked archive. The company moved for relief under Rule 60(b)(2), but the court denied the motion because the email could have been located earlier with reasonable diligence during discovery.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Roger Ramirez offered to sell equipment to Regal Apparel if the buyer performed by shipping payment within ten days. Regal Apparel shipped the payment but never notified Ramirez of acceptance. Because Regal Apparel failed to exercise reasonable diligence to notify Ramirez of non-acceptance, the shipment did not constitute an acceptance under the offer terms.
In pretrial litigation between Redwood Bank and Royal Crest Hotels, Redwood served broad requests for every email sent by any employee over five years. Royal Crest responded with a motion for protective order, arguing that Redwood failed to make a reasonably diligent effort to tailor its requests to the issues in the case.
Raphael Rivera offered to pay Renata Russo $10,000 if she painted his house by a certain date. Russo completed the painting but did not notify Rivera. Because Russo had reason to know Rivera would not learn of the performance promptly, the court held that her contractual duty was discharged unless she exercised reasonable diligence to notify Rivera of acceptance.
Ruby Rivera mailed an acceptance of an offer using overnight courier instead of the first-class mail invited by the offer. The acceptance arrived within the normal time for a properly dispatched letter. The court treated the acceptance as operative on dispatch because Rivera exercised reasonable diligence to insure safe transmission despite using an uninvited method.
The standard measures whether the lawyer acted with the care and promptness that a reasonably prudent lawyer would exercise in the same circumstances. It requires timely attention to client matters and avoidance of unnecessary delay. Failure to meet the standard can result in professional discipline even without client harm.
Supporting sources
The evidence must be such that it could not have been discovered with reasonable diligence in time to move for a new trial under Rule 59. Courts examine what efforts the moving party made during the original litigation. Evidence that could have been found through ordinary discovery procedures does not satisfy the rule.
Supporting sources
When an offer invites acceptance by performance and the offeree has reason to know the offeror will not learn of the performance promptly, the offeree must exercise reasonable diligence to notify the offeror. Without that notice the offeror’s duty may be discharged. The rule protects the offeror from being bound without knowledge of acceptance.
Supporting sources
A lawyer violates the rule by making frivolous discovery requests or by failing to make a reasonably diligent effort to comply with proper requests from the opposing party. The rule requires good-faith efforts to respond rather than blanket refusals or stonewalling. Courts enforce the rule to prevent abuse of the discovery process.
Supporting sources
…relief as the court deems appropriate." The section goes on to provide that "[i]nterim earnings or amounts earnable with reasonable diligence by the person or persons discriminated against shall operate to reduce the back pay otherwise allowable." The section further provides that "[n]o order of the court shall require the…