RICHMOND, Va. — A significant amount of time might have to pass before the Coalition for Credit Union Charter Options gets the chance to appeal its recent court loss to NCUA.

The banker-led coalition, which seeks to promote the rights of credit unions to convert to mutual banks, lost an attempt to invalidate NCUA's charter change regulations in U.S. District Court and filed a notice of appeal on Jan. 7. But a clerk in the U.S Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which will hear the case, said that even though the appeal had been filed it had not yet been given a docket number.

The court received a new computer system in November and the clerk said that the implementation of the new system had sharply delayed the court's work. There was no estimate of when the case might receive a docket number, the clerk said, and until that time the court would not set a timetable for briefs or arguments. The court would notify each side when the case had been put on the court's docket and what the timetables would be, the court said.