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Comments on Recent Cases: June 2025

Many people seek mediation to resolve disputes rather than initiate or proceed with litigation. As part of the mediation process, parties often submit a written statement to the mediator to explain their positions. These statements are often confidential, especially since they may make concessions in an effort to strike a settlement. Courts respect that confidentiality.
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Comments on Recent Cases: May 2025

Parties in American litigation not only often have the power to conduct deposition interviews of the other parties; normally they can compel non-parties, too. But this power, however, is not unlimited.
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Comments on Recent Cases: April 2025

Parties in litigation have very broad powers to ask questions and gain information about the other parties. This often includes information that is irrelevant to the case. But in some instances, courts will put limits on the subjects of inquiry in discovery.
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Comments on Recent Cases: March 2025

Parties in litigation have very broad powers to ask questions and gain information about the other parties. This often includes information that is irrelevant to the case. But in some instances, courts will put limits on the subjects of inquiry in discovery.
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Comments on Recent Cases: February 2025

After a deposition, a witness should review the transcript of her testimony to make sure that it is accurate. She can note in the “errata” sheet any errors. But the witness can only correct mistakes in the transcription of her words; she cannot alter the substance of her responses in the errata sheet.
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Comments on Recent Cases: January 2025

A defendant in litigation may argue that the plaintiff sued in the wrong court. For example, a California defendant may claim that they should not need to participate in a lawsuit in a New York court. And while judges often decide these issues before the parties need to exchange evidence, sometimes courts require a limited exchange of evidence to decide whether the plaintiff chose the right court.
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Comments on Recent Cases: December 2024

An important part of litigation is the motion for summary judgment. It is a litigant’s opportunity to avoid a trial on the grounds that the opponent has no evidence that can support her claims or defenses. But to prevail, a movant needs good evidence herself.
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Comments on Recent Cases: November 2024

A principal question a lawyer must ask before commencing litigation is who the correct plaintiff should be. Not every plaintiff has standing to bring a lawsuit, and making the wrong choice may not be easy to fix. In some cases this is an easy question, but in others it can be more difficult.
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More Commentary

Litigation Practice

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More Thoughts on Answers

Answers are usually relatively inexpensive documents to draft because they do not need to be well-crafted narratives that persuade people of the defendant’s innocence. Defendants have other opportunities in a lawsuit to explain their story, such as in motions to dismiss the case and at trial.
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More Thoughts on Complaints

A complaint is often an effort to prompt a settlement. Defendants and their attorneys often review a complaint to assess whether it looks like it states claims that pose a likelihood of success and whether the lawyers who drafted it seem sufficiently serious and intelligent lawyers to actually win a case or to negotiate reasonably. Complaints with clear errors or bizarre hyperbole may suggest that a negotiation would be unproductive or even unnecessary.
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Wrongful Death Litigation

In many personal injury suits, the plaintiff - the person bringing the lawsuit - is the injured party. This is the person who has “standing” to bring the lawsuit. Some other person, a friend or relative, generally cannot sue for someone else’s injury.
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More Thoughts on What People Get From Lawsuits

People often view the legal system as deciding what conduct is unacceptable. It provides consequences to people who do unacceptable things like breaching an agreement, stealing, and violence. But people may be unclear about what those consequences can be; the consequences may even be an afterthought. So I wrote a post about what a lawsuit can do to benefit the people who come to court to complain about someone else’s misconduct.
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Specific Documents in New York State Court Litigation

After discovery, one party may file a statement with the court stating that the case is ready for trial. This document is a “Note of Issue.” And once the court has this document, it may schedule a trial and also set dates for the other events that need to take place in advance of a trial, such as a pretrial conference and the deadline for submissions of witness lists.
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More Thoughts on How Long Lawsuits Go On For

The wheels of justice move more slowly than many people expect. Lawsuits, even ones where you are very much right and the other side are bad people, often take months or even years.
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Politics and Commercial Litigation

Part of why I rarely see the influence of politics in my work is because of stare decisis. In general, courts follow the rules set forth by appeals courts. And so judges have limited opportunities to carry out the bidding of powerful interests if doing so required making new law. To do so may require a case with no existing precedent, which may be rare, or a case that proceeds to appeal, which may also be relatively rare for many commercial cases, which often settle.
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More Thoughts on Litigation Expenses

For me, I often find the magic number to around $300,000 - disputes about a number below that amount, in many circumstances, are hard to make work economically.
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More Litigation Practice

Interviews

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Litigation in Morocco

Since each side bears their own legal fees, there is a tendency for defendants to delay proceedings. They may hire a cheap lawyer to litigate and appeal as a means to delay their obligation to pay or dissuade a claimant from pursuing litigation.
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Litigation in Haiti

From the complaint to the judgment, the deadline can last up to three months if there aren’t any strikes. Often times it is the clerks who are on strike, other times it is the judges or bailiffs to claim salary adjustments (raises) or better working conditions.
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Litigation in Iceland

"Eðli máls" (the nature of the case) is a recognized source of law in Icelandic legal practice. It is used when there is no explicit statutory provision, precedent, custom, or other clear legal source that directly applies to a particular legal issue. When courts or legal professionals rely on "eðli máls," they base their decisions on reason, fairness, and general legal principles to determine a just and reasonable outcome.
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Litigation in Turkey

In general, Turkey does not have the jury system for any kind of courts or trials. However, the number of assigned judges may vary according to type of the claim and the court. For instance, the commercial courts usually have 1 judge and this is the normal practice. However, if the value of the claim exceeds 300.000 TRY, then a committee of judges (3 judges) handles the claim.
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Litigation in Belgium

In Brussels there are Dutch and French speaking courts. I plead before both of them or other courts in Wallonia in French. We have a small German speaking territory (a leftover feom WWI) and I have had the chance to plead before the local court in German a few times.
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Litigation in Slovenia

Slovenia is a civil law country, so we don’t need to state the law as much as in common law. As a result, 10-20 pages for an initial complaint is average, but it depends on complexity. The complaints in simple cases could be shorter.
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Litigation in Botswana

The way that customary law works, it applies to people who live in tribal communities where the value of claim is usually very small. So when you deal with commercial disputes, the amount at stake is higher and so civil law applies.
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Litigation in South Korea

Korean courts are efficient, with specialized judges who have strong expertise in commercial law, making them effective at handling complex disputes. Their focus on written submissions ensures clarity and thorough consideration of the issues.
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