Key legal question
Whether the federal appeal was filed within the statutory deadline
Extracted holding
The appeal was filed out of time and cannot be entered upon.
Extracted reasoning
The appealed judgment was served on 2007-11-17; the 30-day deadline began on 2007-11-18 and expired on 2007-12-17, before the Christmas recess. The appeal was only handed to the post on 2008-01-15.