§ 6-1527.Remand of removed actions.

A case can travel from state court to federal court and back again, and when it lands back in district court, the record has to reflect what happened while it was away. Section 6-1527 sets the process. Within fourteen days after the remand order gets file-stamped, the defendant has to file a record of the federal case with the district court clerk, after first conferring with the plaintiff, in good faith, about which documents belong in it. That record has to be consecutively paginated, carry a table of contents, and include copies of every pleading, every protective and discovery order, and any other document from the federal case relevant to what happens next — each page still showing the federal court’s header, case number, document number, filing date, and page identifiers, and the whole thing certified accurate by counsel or a self-represented defendant. The plaintiff then gets ten days after that filing to add a supplemental record of anything left out, and the court can adjust these deadlines for good cause.

Once the record is in place, the rule turns to what happens with the pleadings themselves. Repleading is not required unless the district court orders it. A party that was not in default in federal court gets twenty days from the remand order to serve a first responsive pleading or motion if it had not already done so — but any defense already waived under the federal or state rules before or during removal stays waived; it does not come back to life on remand. Any motions still pending in federal court when the case was remanded are deemed withdrawn without prejudice, so a party who wants that motion decided has to refile it in district court.

Discovery gets similar treatment. Pending discovery requests and subpoenas are deemed withdrawn unless the parties agree otherwise, though a federal protective or discovery order still in effect becomes an order of the district court once the remand order is mailed, binding the parties on the same terms unless a party moves to vacate or modify it under Nebraska’s discovery rules. And whatever was obtained in federal court — including depositions — can be used in the district court case exactly as though the discovery had happened there in the first place.