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 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
Rule 202 refers to the pre-suit deposition rule in the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. This rule allows a person or party involved in a dispute to request deposition – sworn testimony recorded by a court reporter – to...more
As a national trial consulting firm, we are often asked to assist with jury selection in jurisdictions where lead counsel has been admitted pro hac vice and may not be closely familiar with the standards and procedures for...more
Ever since the Uniform Law Commission published the Uniform Interstate Discovery and Depositions Act in 2007, the disinterest among Texas lawmakers to adopt the law has been both a curiosity and, to a small extent, a failure...more
As frequent readers of this blog are no doubt aware, the ten-volume practice treatise entitled Commercial Litigation in New York State Courts and edited by distinguished commercial practitioner Robert L. Haig (the “Haig...more
As practitioners and readers of this blog are aware, responsive pleadings are foundational documents prepared at the earliest stage of a litigation in which the responding party denies, admits, or states that she lacks...more
Whether it’s during a deposition or during trial, the job of preserving errors for judicial review is a vital part of the litigator’s professional obligation to his or her client. Many trial outcomes turn on evidentiary...more
My daughter is a figure skater — the kind of skater who practices six days a week. Each one of the complex jumps that a skater executes involves dozens of fine-motor movements that need to be encoded into the skater’s muscle...more
A civil jury trial is a risky proposition in any court, state or federal. To manage that risk, it is usually in each party’s interest to engage in some form of alternative dispute resolution, or ADR. Knowledge of the local...more
As in the Michigan state court system, most of your time in a federal civil case will be spent on discovery, and most of your interaction with the court will be through motion practice. Different courts have different rules...more
Trial advocacy is a mix of law and theater, requiring a lawyer to know both the law and their audience. Attorneys must effectively argue their client’s case using the evidence and the jury instructions to show their client is...more
In 2017, Mexico’s congress approved a key amendment to its Federal Commercial Code. The amendment is now driving dramatic changes to the country’s trial process. One of those changes — a shift from written to oral proceedings...more