Every complaint or other document initiating or removing a civil action or proceeding,
except pro se cases, shall be accompanied by a completed civil cover sheet. The civil cover
sheet shall be submitted as a Form JS-44 obtained from the Clerk or from the Court’s
website, www.tnwd.uscourts.gov.
In section VIII of the JS-44 form, a “related case” is one that: (1) relates to property
involved in an earlier filed case (that is, the case assigned the lower case number), (2) arises
out of the same transaction or occurrence and involves one or more of the same parties as an
earlier filed case, or (3) involves the validity or infringement of a patent at issue in an earlier
filed case. Cases may be related even if one case already has been dismissed or otherwise
terminated or if they have parties other than the party or parties in the earlier filed case.
