A health club is on the hook for a $200,000 arbitration award after its lawyer failed to use New Jersey's eCourts system to electronically file its demand for a trial de novo and to pay the filing fee, the Appellate Division has ruled.

The appeals court affirmed orders enforcing an arbitration award to a plaintiff who suffered an injury at a New York Sports Club and denying the club's motion for leave to file a demand for trial de novo.

The court gave the health club's lawyer, Eric Evans of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani in Florham Park, notice of his failure to comply with mandatory eCourts filing and payment requirements with sufficient time to contact the court and ascertain the proper filing procedure, the appeals court said. But Evans did not do so, and gave no reasonable explanation for his failure to comply with the statute and court rules, the appeals court said.