Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 286: Listen and Learn -- Conclusory Pleadings Under Rule 12(b)(6) (Civ Pro)
Direct Examination: To Lead or Not to Lead
Law School Toolbox Podcast Episode 416: Listen and Learn -- Service of Process (Civ Pro)
Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 224: Listen and Learn -- Service of Process (Civ Pro)
The Only Rule of Multidistrict Litigation Is...
Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 208: Listen and Learn -- Motions to Dismiss a Case
Practicing Before the U.S. Supreme Court | Kannon Shanmugam | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Amended Rules Five Months Later: Early Trends in Case Law and What It Means
Proposed FRCP Changes: Effect on eDiscovery, RIM & IG (CLE)
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
I was fortunate to moderate a webinar for ACEDS about proportionality and summarize the discussion below. You can listen to the entire program here. Proportionality in e-discovery is based on the objective of Rule 1 of the...more
Under Rule 4 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, in most federal civil actions, a notice of appeal must be filed with the district court clerk within 30 days after entry of the judgment or order being appealed, as...more
Thorough preparation of the deposition witness is critical to successful deposition practice. Prior to the deposition, the witness should be advised how and when to respond to questioning, the roles of counsel and the court...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently clarified the incorporation-by-reference doctrine in terms of how a lower court may treat documents outside the four corners of the complaint in deciding...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
Ten is the presumptive upper limit on the number of depositions that each party may take in civil litigation in the federal courts. This number, provided by Rule 30(a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, can be...more
To their credit, experienced litigators are able to resolve the vast majority of pretrial discovery disputes without the need for court intervention. This is particularly true when the dispute in question is whether a...more
Class action defendants who have a strong basis for defeating class certification need not wait around until the plaintiffs move to certify a class before putting the issue to the test. In some instances, a more strategic and...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
A corporate deposition authorized by Fed. R. Civ. P. 30(b)(6), and similar state rules[1] is a powerful discovery device with far-reaching implications. Entities served with such a notice face significant burdens to select...more
The Alberta Rules of Court require parties to an action before the Alberta Court of King’s Bench to participate in some form of alternate dispute resolution process before they can attend trial....more
With the COVID pandemic, remote video depositions and trial testimony very quickly went from rare to routine. Remote testimony, for the most part, is viewed as a convenience to both witnesses and attorneys, and parties and...more
Taking a closer look at the JAMS Mass Arbitration Procedures and Guidelines - What are mass arbitrations, and why in recent years have there been so many of them? The U.S. Supreme Court has made clear in a series of...more
It is not uncommon in litigation for parties to introduce testimony through depositions taken for use at trial. It is very uncommon, though, for a party to request to use their own deposition testimony as their trial...more
Dismissal of a lawsuit is a rare sanction for a discovery violation, but it happened recently in a workplace discrimination lawsuit, due in large part to two probing depositions that called into question one party’s assertion...more
The increasing globalization of business, through Internet-based commerce and the activities of multinational corporations, has made it more likely than ever that litigators in U.S. courts will be confronted with documents...more
In this episode of "The Trial Lawyer's Handbook" podcast series, litigation attorney Dan Small explores how to avoid asking leading questions during direct examination. The Federal Rules of Evidence state that lawyers should...more
Though typically conducted in a conference room, a deposition can take place in many locations and through a variety of methods. So long as you capture a verbatim record, either face-to-face or remotely through the use of...more
Corporate defendants are frequently faced with a quandary—is the company’s highly sophisticated professional employee simply a fact witness or does their anticipated testimony propel them into the world of expert discovery?...more
Experienced litigators are familiar with the tension between the federal legal system’s policy favoring liberal pretrial discovery into all relevant matters and the countervailing policy forbidding discovery that is...more
Litigation attorneys are constantly bombarded with news of trial victories and defeats – millions of dollars awarded in damages in one case while a defense verdict is achieved in another. Although some attorneys may read...more
Way back in April 2020, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, a federal magistrate judge in Colorado had already seen enough to offer the following plea that lawyers reassess their habit of traveling long distances...more
Discovery can be a harrowing and intrusive process for all litigants. As federal and state rules allow for broad discovery of information relevant to any party’s claims or defenses, individuals and business are compelled to...more