New court rules went into effect in Massachusetts last month that authorize remote depositions whenever the party noticing the deposition elects that format. A prior proposal to make in-person depositions the default option...more
The rule seems simple enough: Attorneys defending a witness during a deposition may instruct the witness not to answer questions only for the purpose of protecting privileged information. And yet, if the number of trial court...more
No company would relish the prospect of defending against a class action lawsuit and thousands of related individual arbitrations at the same time. But following a recent federal court ruling, Google (and its parent company,...more
A couple of weeks ago, I was in court to help pick a jury in a high-value case. During that early phase of jury selection, the gallery was full to capacity with potential jurors, the counsel and parties were present, the...more
Everything is bigger in Texas. Even pretrial discovery rules, which permit depositions to be taken merely for the purpose of investigating whether a lawsuit should be filed. No state is more permissive when it comes to...more
I remember listening to Justice Frank Cleckley of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, my professor for Evidence, open his first lecture with a discussion of Federal Rule of Evidence 103. As a young law student, I was...more
The last quarter of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 saw multiple amendments to the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure that will impact Mississippi practitioners. The three primary Rule changes are: (1) third-party...more
The start of the new year has brought changes to Florida’s civil practice. In June 2024, the Florida Supreme Court issued proposed amendments to the state’s Rules of Civil Procedure, which we covered here. After the comment...more
Ever had to explain to a client why a sweet win in the lower courts doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s time to dig in and eat? In City of Martinsville, VA v. Express Scripts, a Fourth Circuit majority opinion used a...more
Attorneys love rules. And our adversarial legal system functions best when both sides understand and follow common rules. So one Maryland appellate rule has always confounded me because it is routinely construed as meaning...more
2024 was an active year in the class action arena. In this post, our Litigation group in Toronto discusses noteworthy developments over the past twelve months. While our focus is on cases and other developments affecting...more
One of the ongoing goals of the New York State Office of Court Administration (“OCA”) is to periodically update and refine the jurisdictional criteria for the Commercial Division to ensure that it exclusively handles complex...more
My new favorite judge is The Honorable R. David Proctor, chief U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Alabama. I love his Nov. 26, 2024 order granting an Opposed Motion Extension of Time to respond to a complaint....more
Minnesota Rule of Civil Procedure 30.02 has been amended to expressly authorize parties to conduct depositions via remote technology and require a party seeking to take a deposition to elect between deposing in-person or...more
The Washington Supreme Court recently approved significant revisions to that state’s procedural rules on remote depositions. Revised Rule 30 of the Washington Civil Rules will now allow remote depositions to be noticed...more
Lawyers’ growing use of artificial intelligence is front of mind these days, but that shouldn’t overshadow the equally energetic and consequential efforts by the nation’s judges to ethically incorporate AI into their work....more
Good amicus briefs contribute to the development of the law and the administration of justice. They can benefit courts, parties, and, of course, the amici themselves. Courts benefit from having a more robust exposition of the...more
On Tuesday, the Business Law Committee of the Orange County Bar Association held a program featuring Judges Chad Alvaro, Margaret Schrieber, and Heather Pinder-Rodriguez, moderated by Lowndes attorney and OCBA Business Law...more
A land partition action in Pennsylvania is unlike any other type of civil litigation. Of course, there are plaintiffs and defendants, pleadings, and discovery just like any other lawsuit, but the course of the litigation is...more
One of the known challenges in litigation against defendants domiciled outside the EU is effecting service. In some instances, this can take a very long time, due to the formal requirements and slowness of the respective...more
The convenience and widespread use of remote depositions and virtual hearings will not, in seems, make it any easier for plaintiffs to choose what they believe is the most advantageous forum for litigating their cases....more
In civil litigation, depositions are a key pretrial discovery tool used to uncover facts, obtain admissions, gather evidence for motions, and assess witnesses. They prevent “trial by ambush” by revealing crucial information...more
Courts have long interpreted Title 35 of the U.S. Code, Section 101, to bar patenting abstract ideas, laws of nature or natural phenomena. But until six years ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's...more
In most cases, the grind of litigation moves forward under the careful scrutiny of courts and within the applicable rules of civil procedure. Settlement, on the other hand, is often separate and secretive; hammered out after...more
Most states have an offer of judgment provision, and many of them are patterned after Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68. Unlike Fed. R. Civ. P. 68, some states allow either party—not just the defendant—to make an offer of...more